Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport

If you fly to Greece, there is a good chance you land here: Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport is the hub for the mainland, the islands and Cyprus, home of Aegean and Olympic Air, and since 2001 the successor to the legendary city airport Hellinikon. For spotters, ATH is an airport with two faces. There is no official visitors’ hill – but ATR turboprops in series, the Dash 8-100 that has become rare in Europe, Gulf carriers, North American traffic and a mountain backdrop you will not get at any German airport.

From Hellinikon to Spata

The history of air traffic in Athens does not begin in Spata but by the sea. South of the city center, right on the Saronic Gulf, the Kalamaki airfield was built in 1938 – later known as Hellinikon. For decades it was the gateway to Greece. In the Second World War the German Luftwaffe used it, and after the war the US military was also on site until 1993.

Architecturally, the east terminal, designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen in the 1960s, is still famous today. The foreign airlines were handled there, while the then flag carrier Olympic Airways used its own west terminal. For many spotters of the older generation, Hellinikon is inseparably linked with Olympic jumbos, Boeing 727s and approaches over the coast road.

The problem: Hellinikon was squeezed between the city and the sea. Designed for about 11 million passengers a year, the airport was already handling about 13.5 million in 2000. As early as the 1970s, Greece had therefore searched for a new site and chosen the Mesogeia plain near Spata, east of the Hymettus mountains. After that, though, a lot of time passed. Only in the mid-1990s did the project really pick up speed.

A major project with a private partner

In 1995, a consortium led by the German construction group Hochtief won the contract to build and operate the new airport. The consortium also included what was then Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG, today’s Fraport. In 1996, the operating company Athens International Airport S.A. was founded as a public-private partnership, with the Greek state as majority owner and private investors as minority partners. Construction costs were a good two billion euros.

The construction required quite a bit of earthmoving: a hill on the site was removed, and a small Byzantine chapel was moved by several hundred meters. Numerous archaeological finds came to light during the work, some of which can be seen today in a small exhibition in the terminal.

The airport was finished in the fall of 2000 and opened on March 28, 2001 – a bit late, because the road connection was not ready yet. On the same day, scheduled service ended at Hellinikon. Hochtief’s airport division, including its Athens stake, went to the Canadian pension fund PSP Investments in 2013 and is now called AviAlliance. Since 2024, the operating company has been listed on the Athens stock exchange, and AviAlliance has been the majority shareholder ever since.

The layout: two runways, terminals in the middle

The airport is clearly and symmetrically laid out. Two parallel runways run north-northeast to south-southwest, with the main terminal and the satellite terminal between them. The two buildings are connected by an underground passage. In the main terminal, the airport separates Schengen and domestic flights on one side from non-Schengen traffic on the other.

The special thing in Athens: instead of using both runways mixed, aircraft mostly land on one runway and take off from the other. According to the spotter community, this split changes over the course of the day in a fixed pattern, and on special occasions such as exam periods in early summer, different time windows apply. The exact times can change – so do not rely on old lists but check live in a flight tracker where landings are happening right now.

Runway direction 03 or 21?

As everywhere, aircraft take off and land into the wind. With wind from northerly directions, operations run in direction 03 – aircraft then land coming from the south over the Markopoulo plain and take off toward the north. With a south wind, the picture flips to direction 21, and approaches come from the north over the area around Paiania and Loutsa.

For you as a spotter, that is the most important question of the day, because many spots only work in one direction. How to assess wind and runway direction in advance is explained in the article understanding the runway direction in use at an airport. For live checks on site, the article on flight tracking with ADS-B helps.

Aegean, Olympic Air and the island hoppers

Athens is the hub of Aegean Airlines. In jet operations, Greece’s largest airline flies exclusively types from the Airbus A320 family, including the A320neo and the A321neo. As a member of Star Alliance, Aegean ensures that this alliance clearly dominates in Athens: in 2025, about half of all passengers were on Star Alliance airlines.

At least as exciting for spotters from Central Europe is the Aegean subsidiary Olympic Air. It flies only turboprops: the ATR 42-600, the ATR 72-600 and a few aging Dash 8-100s. The Dash 8-100 in particular has become rare in Europe – if you get one in front of your lens, it is worth an entry in your logbook.

The third big force is SKY express. The airline from Heraklion has a base in Athens and also relies on a mixed fleet: ATR turboprops for small island airports and Airbus A320neos and A321neos for the busier routes. Together with Olympic Air, SKY express makes sure propeller aircraft are constantly on the move in Athens.

Who else lands in Athens

Besides the Greek airlines, leisure and low-cost airlines shape the picture, above all Ryanair with its own base. According to airport statistics, Ryanair was the third-largest airline in Athens in 2025, after Aegean/Olympic and SKY express.

Things get exciting with the widebodies. Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways fly to Athens, plus Turkish Airlines and in summer several North American airlines such as Delta and United. New York was among the most important intercontinental destinations in 2025, as was Tel Aviv – flights by El Al are therefore part of everyday life. Cargo airlines and, in summer, numerous business aircraft also show up regularly.

Which long-haul flights are currently scheduled depends heavily on the season. In summer the offering is much larger than in winter. A look at the arrivals board before your spotting day saves you a lot of waiting.

Spotting in Athens: no visitors’ hill, but plenty of options

Athens has no official visitor area like Munich or Zurich. Over the years, though, the spotter community has put together a whole series of locations spread around both approaches. Roughly, they can be divided into three groups.

At the terminal: From the departure area of the main terminal, after security you have a view of the apron and taxiways. The windows are tinted, but it is enough for souvenir photos before departure. Around the bridges to the metro and the parking lots there are also public spots with a view of the western runway – but cameras hang there, and security staff are quickly on site. Short visits and restraint are the order of the day here.

In the south near Markopoulo: When landings are in direction 03, approaches come in over fields, olive groves and solar parks. There are several spots here on dirt tracks and small chapels, some with mountains in the background – ideal for images that look like Greece.

In the north near Paiania and Loutsa: With operations in direction 21, aircraft land over the area north of the airport, including near the exhibition center. Here too you find dirt tracks and hills with a clear view of the approach.

Light, heat and equipment

Because the runways run north-northeast to south-southwest, the light moves from one side of the airport to the other over the course of the day. In the morning you have the sun at your back if you stand east of a runway looking west; in the afternoon and evening the spots west of the runways have the advantage. With the article on the sun position at your photo spot, you plan in advance where you should stand at what time.

The bigger problem is often not the light but the air. In the Greek summer, the air shimmers strongly over asphalt and dry fields from late morning, especially at long focal lengths. How to deal with it is covered in the article on heat haze in aircraft photography. In winter the sun is low, but the air is often clearer.

On focal length: for approach shots at the field spots, a medium telephoto is often enough, because the aircraft pass low over you. For shots from the terminal or overviews of the grounds, you need more reach. What else belongs in your bag is shown in the gear checklist.

Getting to the airport

From the city center you reach the airport by Metro Line 3, which ends right at the terminal, or by the Proastiakos suburban rail. Add the express buses X93, X95, X96 and X97 as well as regional buses to the surrounding towns. By car, the toll motorway Attiki Odos leads to the airport; alternatively, there are country roads from several directions.

For the terminal and the bridges near the terminal, public transport gets you there well. For the spots on the approaches, you practically always need a car – the buses to the villages run rarely and do not stop where you want to go. You can find general tips on getting there in the article getting to the spot.

Athens and the rest of Greece

Athens is rarely the only destination of a trip to Greece. From here, domestic flights lead to the other big airports in the country: to Thessaloniki Airport in the north, to Heraklion Airport on Crete and to Rhodes Airport. Thessaloniki and Heraklion were among the most-flown domestic routes from Athens in 2025.

If you are looking for spectacular approaches, combine Athens with an island: the runway end at Skiathos Airport and Kanoni at Corfu Airport are among the best-known spots in Europe. And if you are interested in aviation history, the detour to the Hellenic Air Force Museum at Tatoi north of Athens is worthwhile. The Greece guide for spotters gives you an overview of the whole country.

Conclusion

Athens Airport is not an airport for sitting back comfortably. There is no visitor park, the best spots are on dirt tracks, and in summer you fight heat and shimmering air. In return you get an aircraft picture that differs clearly from Central Europe: Aegean Airbuses every minute, ATR turboprops on their way to the islands, Gulf carriers, North American traffic and approaches in front of the Mesogeia mountain backdrop.

If you understand the runway allocation, start early in the morning and stick to the Greek rules of the game, you come back with full memory cards. And if you hope for Olympic jumbos at Hellinikon on site, you have to make do with history – but that belongs to Athens Airport just as much as today’s operations in Spata.