The Athens former airport, Hellinikon, has become a graveyard for many abandoned Olympic Airways planes.
As the airport awaits redevelopment, these spectacular images captured by a drone video remind viewers of the glory days when the airline founded by Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, was flying to almost every corner of the globe.
The video by Thomas Andreopoulos focuses on the jewel in the crown of the Olympic Airways fleet, the imposing Olympic Eagle that lies abandoned on the southeastern side of the former airport.
The double-decker Boeing 747-200 joined the Olympic Airways fleet at the end of 1973. At the time it was considered as being among the largest planes on earth able to carry up to 426 passengers.
This aircraft has special features with references to ancient Greek history that distinguish it from 747s owned by other carriers.
Its cabin is divided into “zones”, each of which has a name from parts of Acropolis in Athens. For example, Zone A was called “Propylaea”, Zone B “Erechthion” and Zone C “Parthenon”.
Olympic Eagle was used for flying to Australia, North America, Africa and Asia. The plane traveled until the late 1990s when it was abandoned at the former Hellenic airport, where it still remains to this day.
Hellinikon was built in 1938, and for more than 60 years it was Athens’ Central Airport, with the last take-off being in 2001; with an Olympic Airways Boeing 737 that made a flight to Thessaloniki.
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