Greece plans an initial public offering (IPO) of Athens International Airport, the country’s biggest, on the Athens Stock Exchange in February, Reuters reports, citing two unnamed sources.
Draft legislation tabled in Parliament at the beginning of January paves the way for the listing of the airport on the Greek stock market, the finance ministry announced.
The airport employs more than 16,000 people in over 370 companies making it one of the country’s largest employers.
The Greek government wants to divest a 30 percent stake owned by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), the country’s privatization agency. The Greek sovereign wealth fund HCAP (Hellenic Corporation of Assets & Participations) holds another 25 percent.
An IPO for a 19 percent stake in the airport and the listing is seen happening “in the first half of February,” a senior HRADF official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A previous effort to sell the stake to private investors in 2018 to 2020 ended after COVID-19 brought world travel to a halt.
In late November, Greece passed the final hurdle when the European Commission approved the plan for the listing of Athens International Airport on the Stock Exchange.
Another official told Reuters last year that the agency aimed to list the airport in the first quarter of 2024 and sell to Germany-based airport manager AviAlliance, which currently holds a 40 percent stake, a further 10 percent at a premium to the IPO price.
An additional stake of one percent will be sold to the Copelouzos family, which owns five percent of the airport, the HRADF official said.
Passenger traffic at the Athens Airport set a new all-time record in 2023
Passenger traffic at the Athens International Airport set a new all-time record in 2023, totaling 28,174,150 passengers, breaking the 28 million passengers barrier for the first time and surpassing the previous 2019 record of 25.57 million.
Passenger traffic in December was 1.86 million. It was up 17.1 percent from 2022 and greater than the 13.6 percent of 2019. Both domestic and international traffic exceeded 2022 levels by 11.9 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively, while, in comparison with 2019, domestic and international traffic were 20.8 percent and 10.7 percent up.
Passenger traffic in 2023 was up 24 percent from 2022 and 10.2 percent from 2019. Domestic traffic was up 18.9 percent from 2022, and international traffic was up 26.4 percent over the same period, while, in comparison with 2019, domestic and international traffic were up 13.3 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.
The number of flights totaled 241,604 in 2023. This was an increase of 13.2 percent from 2022 and 7.1 percent from 2019. Both domestic and international flights rose 7.4 percent and 18.1 percent respectively compared with 2022 and rose by 10.5 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, compared with 2019.
In the summer of 2022, the Athens airport was crowned the ultimate best in Europe according to rankings from user review ratings on Google compiled by Holidu, a British search engine for holiday rentals.
Being Greece’s main and largest airport, the Eleftherios Venizelos scored a whopping 4.4 stars out of 5 from 24,467 reviews.
In October 2022, Greece opened three new metro stations, which include Piraeus. It will link the busy port with the Athens airport.
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