Fraport revs up hirings to manage 14 Greek airports

The German-Greek consortium Fraport Greece will finally assume the management of 14 regional airports around Greece in January 2017 in exchange for 1.234 billion euros, one of the biggest concession agreements ever signed by the Greek state.

The occasion will mark a high-point for Greece’s memorandum-mandated privatization program, along with the sale of a majority stake of the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) and its management to Chinese multinational Cosco, as well as the finalization of a deal for the massive coastal Helleniko site’s property redevelopment.

The concession agreement extends over 40 years.

According to the consortium, which is comprised of a majority stake by Germany’s Fraport and a minority shared held by Athens-based Copelouzos group, at least 90 employees have already been hired just for the Athens headquarters, while the 14 airport managers have also been recruited, along with another 70 new employees for Thessaloniki’s Macedonia Airport -- the biggest facility among the 14 in the agreement.  

The company has promised to create thousands of direct and indirect job positions from its assumption of the 14 airports, many in Greece’s most eponymous holiday destinations.   

Three of the 14 airports are located on the mainland (Thessaloniki, Aktio in western Greece and Kavala, in northern Greece), along with island airports in Hania (Crete), Corfu, Cephallonia, Kos, Mykonos, Mytilene (Lesvos), Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos. 

All together, the 14 facilities saw 23 million passengers pass through their gates in 2015, a yearly increase of 6 percent, with 73 percent of the passengers being foreign travelers.  

330 million euros until 2020

Based on a Fraport Greece master plan, total investments for upgrades and improvements in the 14 airports reaches 330 million euros until 2020, with the total investment – beyond the concession price tag – to reach one billion euros. The first works are scheduled to begin in the first trimester of 2017.

Priority will be given to Hania (Chania), Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Corfu and Kos, all pre-eminent and world-class holiday destinations.

Besides improvements and upgrades in terminals, Fraport Greece has promised to install advanced security systems, baggage handling as well as accelerated runway maintenance.

On a larger scale, Thessaloniki’s Macedonia Airport will undergo three phases of expansion, in a bid to attract not only the “lion’s share” of air traffic in northern Greece but also from neighboring countries.

In looking to the future and on the marketing level, Fraport Greece has already commenced a first round of contacts with foreign air carriers and tour operators, in a preliminary bid to ensure increased passenger traffic from its inaugural year of managing the 14 facilities.  

According to reports, Fraport Greece executives travelled to Atlanta last week to attend the 139ο IATA Slot Conference.

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