Tanagra Air Base is a large military air base situated in

Tanagra Tanagra ( el, Τανάγρα) is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari. It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it. The T ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

. The air base is adjacent to

Hellenic Aerospace Industry Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) ( el, Ελληνική Αεροπορική Βιομηχανία - ΕΑΒ) is the leading aerospace company of Greece. The company headquarters is located in Tanagra, 65 kilometers north-west of Athens, with the ...

facilities. It is used as the home-base of the 114th Combat Wing (114 Πτέρυγα Μάχης, 114 ΠΜ) of the

Hellenic Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 8 November , equipment = , equipment_label ...

History

From

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

until the early 1950s, Tanagra Air Base was used as a complementary airfield. After that period, and with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

contribution, it was upgraded to a main air base of the

Hellenic Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 8 November , equipment = , equipment_label ...

. From 1975 to 2003 Dassault Mirage F1CG were operated from Tanagra. Starting in 2007, newly acquired Dassault Mirage 2000-5 are operated by the 331st All Weather Squadron. It had been proposed in the 1980s that a civil terminal would be built at the airport, rendering Tanagra as a secondary Athens airport, to complement

Ellinikon International Airport Ellinikon International Airport, sometimes spelled ''Hellinikon'' ( el, Ελληνικόν), was the international airport of Athens, Greece, for 63 years. It was replaced on 28 March 2001 by the new Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios ...

, which was going to be expanded. This plan was dropped when it was decided to construct the current

Athens International Airport Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' ( el, Διεθνής Αερολιμένας Αθηνών «Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος», ''Diethnís Aeroliménas Athinón "Elefthérios Venizélos"''), commonly initialised as ...

"Eleftherios Venizelos" in the Spata area east of Athens. Since 2017, Tanagra Air Base has been the venue of the annual Athens Flying Week airshow, held in September each year. On January 19, 2022

332st All Weather Squadron 33 may refer to: *33 (number) *33 BC *AD 33 *1933 *2033 Music * ''33'' (Luis Miguel album) (2003) * ''33'' (Southpacific album) (1998) * ''33'' (Wanessa album) (2016) *"33 'GOD'", a 2016 song by Bon Iver * "Thirty-Three" (song), a 1995 song by t ...

received its first 6 Dassault Rafale F3R fighters and retired its aging Dassault Mirage-2000EG/BG fighters upon a ceremony held by the Hellenic Air Force.

References

Airports in Greece Hellenic Air Force bases Boeotia {{europe-airport-stub