Athens International Airport S.A. or AIA is the airport authority that owns and manages

Athens International Airport Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' , commonly initialised as AIA, is the largest international airport in Greece, serving the city of Athens and region of Attica. It began operation on 28 March 2001 (in time for the 2004 Su ...

History

AIA was created in 1996 with the Greek government as a majority stakeholder (55%) and

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a global provider of infrastructure technology and construction services, with locations in North America, Australia, and Europe. The Essen based company is primarily active in the fields of high tech, energy transition, and sustai ...

holding 45% of the capital. AIA received a 250 million-fund from the EU to build the new Athens airport Operations of the Athens International Airport started March 29, 2001. In 2004, it was declared European airport of the year. The airport was built in preparation for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. AIA holds a 30-year concession on the Athens airport, concession that will expire in 2026. In October 2012, AIA launched the largest unified

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

installation at any airport worldwide, an 8 MWp and 160,000 square meter project that cost 20 million euros and is expected to provide 20% (11 million kWh) of the airport's annual energy consumption. In March 2013, AIA reduced its airport fees (the highest in Europe then) in a move to increase traffic.

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

publicly attacked the airport operator and its high fees, arguing that those were to be blamed for the drop of air traffic in recent years. In May 2013, Hochtief sold its 40% stakes of AIA to Canada's

Public Sector Pension Investment Board The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) is a Canadian Crown corporation established by the Parliament of Canada in September 1999 through the ''Public Sector Pension Investment Board Act''. PSP Investments is one of Canada's ...

(PSP Investments) for 1.1 billion euros. In February 2014, a Chinese consortium consisting of FPAM and the Shenzhen Airport company expressed its intention to buy the 55% shares held by the Greek government. In September 2014, a Greek court found that Hochtief did not pay

value added tax A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

in Greece for more than 20 years, holding the German company accountable for reimbursing 500 million euros to the Greek government, even though a British court ruled in favor of Hochtief in March 2013. In the midst of the

Greek government-debt crisis Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family ** Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kn ...

, Europe has constantly advised the Greek government to privatize AIA SA, yet political resistance has led this recommendation unenacted. In June 2019, Greece's

Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF; , ΤΑΙΠΕΔ) is a Greek state-owned asset management company that controls a number of state owned enterprises. It is a direct subsidiary of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participat ...

invited schemes to submit an

Expression of Interest An invitation to tender (ITT, also known as a call for bids or a request for tenders) is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business activ ...

(Phase A) for the acquisition of a 30% stake in Athens International Airport SA. The deadline (initially until September 2019) expired on October 29, 2019 and ten investment schemes expressed their interest, including

Groupe ADP Groupe ADP, formerly Aéroports de Paris or ADP (''Paris Airports''), is an international airport operator based in Paris (France). Groupe ADP owns and manages Parisian international airports Charles de Gaulle Airport, Orly Airport and Le Bourget ...

, APG Asset Management,

AviAlliance AviAlliance is an airport management company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The company was founded in 1997 as Hochtief AirPort, a subsidiary of the international construction service provider Hochtief. Since 27 September 2013, the compan ...

Vinci Airports Vinci Airports is a subsidiary of Vinci Group, which develops and operates civil airports. The company develops a network of 65 airports in 12 countries including France, Portugal, Brazil, United States, Cambodia, Japan, Dominican Republic, Chil ...

Ferrovial Ferrovial S.E. (), previously Grupo Ferrovial, is a Spanish multinational company that operates in the infrastructure sector for transportation and mobility with four divisions: Highways, Airports, Construction, and Mobility and Energy Infrastru ...

First Sentier Investors First Sentier Investors, formerly known as Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Australia and First State Investments elsewhere, is a global asset management business that manages US$146.2 billion (as at 31 December 2022) in assets m ...

Global Infrastructure Partners Global Infrastructure Partners, LLC (GIP) is an American infrastructure investment fund making equity and selected debt investments across markets worldwide. GIP's main headquarters are located in New York City and its equity investments are bas ...

and a consortium of Ardian Infrastructure Fund S.C.A., Sicar and Ardian Infrastructure Fund V B S.C.S. SICAV – RAIF, another consortium of

KKR KKR may refer to: * KKR & Co., a global investment firm *Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise * Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany * Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR *Kir-Bala ...

and Egis and a consortium of MEIF 6 Attic Investment, RAFFLES INFRA HOLDING and Chengdong Investment Corporation.

References

{{Authority control Transport companies of Greece Airport operators