Athens to redevelop an airport into a tourist hot spot

Athens used to have another airport – Hellenikon. It served the US Air Force until 1991 and closed to air traffic soon after the 2004 Olympics. According to an article by the Business Times of Singapore, the Greek government has finally started its long-planned efforts to renovate and reopen the airport and develop an entire touristic complex around it.

The tourism industry is one of Greece’s key economic assets and plans to reopen that airport and build villas, malls and a casino in the Hellenikon area have been floating around since 2014. The recent pandemic and the economic crisis that ensued gave the final push to the project, which could help the country’s tourism sector and even allow it to grow past pre-COVID levels.

Work on the hub’s tourist infrastructure is due to start in the first months of 2021 after the basic groundwork has been completed on the airport itself. Already, a number of investors have expressed their interest in this project.