Ellinikon International Airport, sometimes spelled Hellinikon (Greek: Ελληνικόν) was the international airport of Athens, Greece for sixty years up until 28 March 2001, when it was replaced by the new Athens International Airport, Eleftherios Venizelos. The grounds of the airport are located 7 kilometres south of Athens, and just west of Glyfada. It was named after the village of Elliniko (Elleniko), now a suburb of Athens. The airport had an official capacity of 11 million passengers per year, but had served 13.5 million passengers during its last year of operations.
The airport was built in 1938. The Nazis invaded Greece in 1941, and Kalamaki Airfield (as the site was then known) was used as a Luftwaffe air base during the occupation. After World War II, the Greek government allowed the United States to use the airport from 1945 until 1993. In 1988, Greece decided not to extend the arrangement, and the USAF concluded its operations there in 1991. The airport was the base of operations by the Greek national carrier Olympic Airways.
The airport had two terminals: the West Terminal for Olympic Airways, and the East Terminal for all other carriers. The East Terminal building was designed between 1960 and 1969 by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. Just before its closure in 2001, the airport recorded a 15.6% growth rate over its previous year, serving 13.5 million passengers per year and handling 57 airlines flying to 87 destinations. The airport's official capacity was 11 million passengers per year.
The last aircraft to depart from Ellinikon was an Olympic Airways Boeing 737 bound for Thessaloníki.
In April 2011 the Olympic Airways Museum opened in the West Terminal, including three airplanes that had been parked there since the airport's closure. The Athens radar center is still based at Ellinikon.
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