Athens Airport Splits €950 Million Expansion Into Phases as Traffic Climbs

Athens International Airport (ATH) has reworked how it will deliver its €950 million capacity expansion, moving from a single large programme to a staged approach with an open tender for the first phase. The decision came alongside half-year results that showed strong traffic growth but weaker financial headline figures.

A modular plan replaces one large project

The airport said it is restructuring the expansion programme, which runs through 2030, into phases that can be adjusted as demand develops. The 40-million-passenger capacity plan remains the reference framework, but the operator said it will also evaluate alternative configurations that could exceed that figure.

The first phase covers an extension of the South Main Terminal Pier and an expansion of the Satellite Terminal. Athens has discontinued its Early Contractor Involvement process, under which a contractor would have been brought in during design, and will instead run a separate open tender for the initial works. The company has said the first phase should be complete by the end of 2030.

The airport described the new approach as a “modular implementation strategy”, giving it room to match spending to actual traffic while keeping operations resilient during construction.

Traffic keeps growing, but slows in the second quarter

ATH handled about 15.75 million passengers in the first six months of 2026, up 4.5% on the same period of 2025. Domestic traffic grew 5.1% and international traffic 4.2%.

Growth was uneven across the half. The first quarter was up 8.1%, while the second quarter slowed to 2.2%, a deceleration the airport linked to geopolitical tension in the Middle East weighing on aviation demand. Despite that, management raised its full-year 2026 traffic guidance from low single-digit growth to mid-single-digit growth.

Revenue and profit dip on pricing

Financial results moved in the opposite direction to traffic. Revenue for the half fell 2.8% to €299.6 million, adjusted EBITDA dropped 7.6% to €168.5 million and net profit declined 11.6% to €81.4 million.

The airport attributed the decline mainly to a temporary 30% discount on the passenger terminal facility charge, which applied from 1 October 2025 to 30 April 2026, together with regulatory alignment effects. In other words, the airport carried more passengers while earning less per passenger during the period.

What it means for airlines and passengers

Athens is one of the busiest Mediterranean leisure gateways, and summer peaks have tested terminal and pier capacity in recent seasons. Extending the South Main Terminal Pier and the Satellite Terminal targets the airside facilities where gate and processing pressure is felt first, rather than adding a wholly new building.

The shift to an open tender also widens the field of bidders for work that was previously tied to a single early-involvement contractor. Timelines will depend on the tender outcome, and the airport has not yet published the detailed schedule for the later phases.

For airlines planning winter and 2027 schedules, the practical message is continuity: the airport is signalling that growth will continue to be accommodated in steps, with the first new capacity not arriving until near the end of the decade.