Athens Airport Invests €1.3 Billion to Handle 40 Million Passengers

Athens International Airport is advancing a €1.3 billion expansion programme intended to lift annual capacity to 40 million passengers by 2032, according to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) and Greek City Times. The project concerns Eleftherios Venizelos, the airport serving the Greek capital, and covers the period from 2026 to 2032. It is presented as a major infrastructure programme for Athens’ international passenger and business connections.

The reported plan follows a strong operating year. The sources said the airport served 164 destinations in 55 countries through 70 airlines in 2025. Those figures describe the airport’s recorded network for that year. The expansion target is separate: the proposed works are intended to increase annual handling capacity to 40 million passengers by 2032, rather than stating that the airport has already reached that level.

For Athens, the capacity question reaches beyond the airport site. International visitors, business travellers and residents of Attica use Eleftherios Venizelos as the main air gateway to the capital. Additional capacity would be relevant to airlines, airport operators and tourism businesses, but the available reports do not provide a forecast for passenger growth, ticket prices or employment. They identify the investment value, the capacity target and the existing destination network.

The programme also places Athens within a wider air-connectivity system. Greek City Times described a set of new American Airlines international routes that includes Dallas-Fort Worth to Athens, while AMNA’s report focused on the airport investment programme itself. The two reports support the description of a city gateway with expanding international links, but they do not establish that every new route is part of the €1.3 billion works.

The current news is therefore the airport’s stated expansion programme and its 2032 capacity objective. The 2025 figures provide context for the scale of Eleftherios Venizelos’ operations, while the investment remains a plan to be carried forward. Any future assessment of delivery would require later airport or government updates.

The airport figures should be separated from broader claims about tourism demand. AMNA provides the investment value and the 2032 capacity objective, while the reported 2025 network gives a snapshot of the airport’s existing reach. Neither source states how the additional capacity will be divided among airlines, domestic connections or international routes. The confirmed local fact is the proposed infrastructure programme at Eleftherios Venizelos.

Sources: greekcitytimes.com, www.amna.gr.

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