Ellinikon International Airport
Encyclopedia : E : EL : ELL : Ellinikon International Airport
Ellinikon International Airport , sometimes spelled Hellinikon (in Greek Ελληνικόν) was the international airport of Athens for sixty years up until 2001 when it was replaced by Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport. It had two terminals; the west terminal for Olympic Airways and the east terminal for international flights. Its IATA code of ATH is now used at Venizelos.
It is bounded by residential houses, beaches in the west and in the south by the wooded trees of the Glyfada Golf Club along with the Ellinikon-Glyfada municipal boundary.
After its closure to passenger traffic, a hangar on the west side of the airport was converted into a basketball arena. However, part of the runway still exists and there is a chance that Hellinikon will remain in use as a general aviation airport (with a significantly reduced runway). The Athens radar center is also still based there. However, since the end of the 2004 Summer Olympics, there has been much discussion to develop what remains of the old airport and its runways into an urban park in order to alleviate Athens' need for more green spaces. If this project is realized, the proposed Ellinikon urban park would be one of the largest in Europe.
History
The airport was built in 1938.In 1963 the Finnish star architect Eero Saarinen designed the East Terminal.
On April 2, 1986, TWA Flight 840, which was travelling from Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport near Rome to Ellinikon was bombed, sucking four people out of the plane to their deaths. The plane landed safely.
Prior to closing its passenger service, the airport was serving 12 million passengers per year.
External links
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