Ellinikon: The Airport That Opened Greece to the World

Gary Fradelos
Aug 5
4 min read

Today’s travellers pass through automated gates, self-service check-in kiosks and modern terminals designed to handle millions of passengers every year.

Just a few kilometres away, however, lies the place where modern Greek aviation truly took shape.

Passengers entering the original terminal at Ellinikon Airport in Athens. — Passengers entering the original terminal at Ellinikon Airport. ***Photo:*** *Harrison Forman Collection, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries.* ***Source:*** *Retronaut /* *LiFO*.

Long before Athens International Airport became Greece’s gateway to the world, every international journey began at Ellinikon. It was here that Olympic Airways built its identity, where the arrival of the Boeing 747 ushered in a new era of long-haul travel, and where generations of Athenians gathered simply to watch aircraft come and go.

For more than six decades, Ellinikon was more than an airport.

It became the front door of an entire country.

Where It All Began

The story of Ellinikon dates back to the late 1930s, when construction began on an airfield in the area then known as Hasani. The outbreak of the Second World War interrupted those plans, and during the occupation the site was expanded for military use.

In the years that followed, the airport gradually evolved into Greece’s principal civil aviation hub. As commercial air travel expanded across Europe and tourism began transforming the Greek economy, Ellinikon found itself at the centre of a rapidly changing world.

For countless visitors arriving from abroad, their first impression of Greece wasn’t a postcard-perfect island or an archaeological site.

It was the airport at Ellinikon.

Passengers leaving an Olympic Airways airport bus at Ellinikon Airport in Athens. — Passengers disembark from an Olympic Airways apron bus at Ellinikon Airport. ***Photo:*** *Harrison Forman Collection, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries.* ***Source:*** *Retronaut /* *LiFO*

The Airport That Welcomed the World

As international air travel entered the jet age, Ellinikon became one of the busiest airports in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Airliners from Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East arrived daily, while Olympic Airways steadily expanded its international network under its iconic six-ring logo. The airport became a symbol of a country looking outward, connecting Greece with destinations that only a generation earlier had seemed unimaginably distant.

For many Greeks, the airport also represented something deeply personal.

It was where families said goodbye to loved ones beginning a new life overseas.

It was where emigrants returned home after years abroad.

And it was where millions of tourists took their very first steps onto Greek soil.

A New Landmark for Modern Greece

One of Ellinikon’s defining chapters began in 1969 with the opening of the East Terminal, designed by renowned Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen.

East Terminal at Ellinikon Airport in Athens, designed by Eero Saarinen. — The iconic East Terminal at Ellinikon Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen. ***Photo:*** *Harrison Forman Collection, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries.* ***Source:*** *Retronaut /* *LiFO*.

Its clean lines, expansive glass façades and elegant modernist design reflected the optimism of an era in which aviation represented progress, innovation and international connectivity.

More than half a century later, the terminal remains one of the most recognisable airport buildings ever constructed in Greece—a lasting reminder of an age when airports were designed not only to move passengers, but also to inspire them.

When the Jumbo Jet Arrived

Few aircraft changed the image of Ellinikon more dramatically than the Boeing 747.

The arrival of the “Jumbo Jet” transformed long-haul aviation worldwide, and Greece was no exception. Watching the enormous aircraft taxi across the apron became an attraction in itself, drawing families, photographers and aviation enthusiasts eager to witness what was then the world’s largest passenger aircraft.

Olympic Airways’ Boeing 747s departing for New York, Johannesburg and Sydney became defining images of Greek aviation during the 1970s and 1980s.

For many, they represented more than international travel.

They represented opportunity.

More Than a Place to Catch a Flight

Unlike today’s airports, Ellinikon was also a destination for people who had no intention of travelling.

Passengers inside the East Terminal at Ellinikon Airport in Athens. — Passengers inside the East Terminal at Ellinikon Airport. ***Photo:*** *Harrison Forman Collection, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries.* ***Source:*** *Retronaut /* *LiFO*.

Its famous observation terraces attracted thousands of visitors every weekend. Families would spend hours watching aircraft arrive from every corner of the world, while aspiring pilots and aviation enthusiasts dreamed of one day sitting in the cockpit.

For an entire generation, a visit to Ellinikon was an experience in itself.

Long before social media and flight-tracking apps, the airport offered a front-row seat to the excitement of international aviation.

The Final Departure

After serving Greece for more than six decades, Ellinikon entered its final chapter in March 2001, when commercial operations were transferred to the newly opened Athens International Airport.

The move marked the beginning of a new era for Greek aviation, but it also brought to a close one of the country’s most remarkable chapters in aviation history.

Today, parts of the former airport remain standing, while redevelopment continues to reshape the area.

Yet its legacy lives on.

Millions of journeys began here.

Countless reunions and farewells unfolded beneath its terminals.

And some of the most iconic aircraft ever built touched down on its runways.

Athens may have a new gateway today.

But for generations of travellers, pilots and aviation enthusiasts, Ellinikon will always be remembered as the airport that opened Greece to the world.