Thessaloniki "at last gets the airport it deserves," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated during an event to mark the completion of upgrades at 14 regional airports.
Fraport Greece's innovative €440 million investment has significantly transformed these airports.
"As we carefully walk towards the exit of the COVID-19 health crisis, these airports will become our national bridges for a freer and more efficient summer, as we continue to build a wall of immunity with our vaccine rollout," Mitsotakis said.
The Thessaloniki Airport upgrade worth €100 million, will have twice as many departure gates, many more retail facilities and can accommodate about 10 million people a year. It handled 6.9 million in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.
The investment is expected to add over 10,000 new jobs, improve customer services, and create a better working environment for all.
It will be able to serve 10 million visitors annually, which opens great opportunities for the city of Thessaloniki as well.
The 14 Greek airports renovated by the German-led consortium could serve as "bridges" for a summer of greater freedom after months of lockdown. The upgraded airports:
- Thessaloniki
- Kavala
- Aktion
- Corfu
- Chania (Crete)
- Kefalonia
- Kos
- Lesvos
- Mykonos
- Rhodes
- Samos
- Santorini
- Skiathos
- Zakynthos.
International passengers account for over 70% of the total traffic at these airports.
The entire project involved building 5 new modern airports, expanding 5, and redesigning 4 of them.
In addition, 12 landing and takeoff corridors were constructed and 12 Fire Brigade stations were upgraded.
"As we reach the end of the pandemic, we all hope that the increased summer traffic will allow us to look forward to a better tourist period than the one we had last year," Mitsotakis said.
Greece reopened to tourism on May 15. All travellers to the country will have to fill in a passenger locator form (PLF) detailing where they will be staying and for how long and will also have to present a certificate of vaccination against Covid-19 or a recent negative PCR test or an official document certifying recent recovery from the virus.
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