The Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, which began operation in March 2001, serves the city of Athens in Greece. It is located between the towns of Markopoulo, Koropi, Spata and Loutsa , about 20 km east of Athens city centre (30 km by road, due to intervening hills).

It is named after Eleftherios Venizelos, the Cretan Prime Minister, who was prominent in the Cretan rising against the Ottoman occupation of Crete in 1896. It has the IATA airport code ATH (which it overtook from Ellinikon International Airport which it replaced) and the ICAO airport code LGAV.

The runways are approximately 4 kilometres in length. The Airport was developed by public-private partnership. Greece holds 55% of the shares.

It is connected to the venues of the 2004 Olympics by railway.

Robotic security

The new airport is equipped with two robotic systems (robots "Hercules" and "Ulysses") capable of handling suspect devices, designed to protect the lives of individuals as well as airport spaces, by safely identifying and removing explosives.

Hercules was donated by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to the airport. It is a system worth approximately €170,000, manufactured by Soukos Robots ABEE. Hercules is capable of the safe collection and transportation of explosives for disposal. It is equipped with a spherical shaped tank with a diameter of 120 cm, and two robotic folding arms.

Ulysses is a system worth €94,000, donated by Soukos Robots ABEE. This system was manufactured in order to serve as a supplement to Hercules, allowing entrance in difficult access areas such as toilets, buses or aircraft. It is a light but highly efficient robot, equipped with a shock-absorbing system allowing movements on rough surfaces.

Airlines

• Ada-Air
• Aegean Airlines
• Aeroflot
• Aerosvit Airlines
• Air Berlin
• Air France
• Air Moldova
• Air Zena Georgian
• Alitalia
• Alpi Eagles
• Armenian International
• Austrian Airlines
• British Airways
• CSA Czech Airlines
• Cyprus Airways
• Delta Air Lines
• Easyjet
• Egyptair
• El Al
• Emirates
• Finnair
• Germanwings
• Hapag-Lloyd
• Hellas Jet
• Hemus Air
• Iberia Airlines
• Iran Air
• Jat Airways
• KLM
• LOT Polish
• LTU International
• Lufthansa
• Luxair
• Maersk Air
• MALÉV Hungarian Airlines
• Middle East Airlines Liban
• Olympic Airlines
• Pakistan International Airlines
• Pulkovo Aviation
• Royal Jordanian
• Saudi Arabian Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• Snowflake Airlines
• Swiss International Airlines
• Syrian Arab Airlines
• TAROM
• Thai Airways International
• Turkish Airlines
• Tunisair
• Uzbekistan Airlines
• Virgin Express
• Volare Airlines
• Wizzair

External links

• Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport Homepage