Thessaloniki Airport , officially Thessaloniki Airport "Makedonia" () and formerly Mikra Airport, is an international airport serving Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece. It is located southeast of the city, in Thermi. To cope with demand, a second terminal was constructed in conjunction with Fraport and formally opened in 2021.
thumb|New Terminal (T2)
History
The airport was first established as an airfield during the First World War, as part of the allied war effort on the Macedonian front. There were numerous airfields at the time, including , (which became the current international airport), and the major military airfield of Sedes. Fraport Greece will operate the airport for 40 years starting on 11 April 2017. It pledged to invest €400 million ($ million) on the various airports, including a refurbishment of the existing facilities at Thessaloniki as well as the construction of a second terminal. Construction on the new terminal began on 19 September 2018 and finished in February 2021, three months ahead of schedule. Refurbishment works other than the terminal included the installation of an upgraded baggage handling system, the construction of three additional baggage reclaim belts, the connection of the wastewater treatment plant to the municipal service, the construction of a new airport fire station, and the construction of two new access control gatehouses to the previously unguarded apron. Fraport expects passenger traffic to increase by 48% by 2026 as a result of its investment.
Terminals
The airport's original terminal (T1) consists of three floors. The ground floor serves arrivals only and is divided into two sections: international/extra-Schengen arrivals and domestic/intra-Schengen arrivals. The second floor serves departures and also includes a shopping center. On this floor there are 16 check-in counters, waiting areas, bars, stores and various airlines' offices. The third floor houses two restaurants and several bars with views to the runways, as well as two passenger lounges. T1 houses twelve departure gates (numbered 13-24) : gates 13 and 14 are for domestic or intra-Schengen flights, gates 15-18 are used interchangeably for either domestic, intra-Schengen or extra-Schengen flights, and gates 19-24 are reserved exclusively for extra-Schengen international flights.
An additional terminal (T2) was opened in the beginning of 2021. It includes an additional 28 check in counters (bringing the airport total to 44), and twelve departure gates (numbered 01-12) for international (intra-Schengen) and domestic flights. This terminal also includes several additional duty-free shops, traditional souvenir and jewelry shops, and auxiliary airline offices.
In both terminals, passengers can use the "Fraport-free" free Wi-Fi and public mobile phone charging ports, as well as luggage carrying trolleys, and receive information from two National Tourism Organization offices. There are also ATM machines, postal service and car rental offices in the departure sections of both terminals.
Runways and apron
The airport has two runways (10/28 and 16/34) and two taxiways. There are 22 stands for narrow-body aircraft and 20 for light aircraft.
A modernisation and expansion project for runway 10/28 began in 2005, with an initial completion date of 2011, but has since been delayed The runway entered service on 11 September 2020. Overall, the project took almost a quarter century to build, from inception in 1997, and it had an estimated cost of €179 million ($ million). The runway was extended by into the sea, with a total length of and was equipped with ILS. Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo (begins 23 September 2026), Chania, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Heraklion, Istanbul, Kalamata, Kos, Milan–Malpensa, Munich, Mytilene, Rhodes, Stuttgart, Zürich <br /> Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Dubrovnik, Hanover, İzmir, Milos (begins 16 June 2026), Mykonos, Naxos, Nuremberg, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Paros, Tbilisi, Venice, Yerevan, Zakynthos (begins 16 June 2026)
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| Air Serbia | Belgrade <br /> Seasonal: Kraljevo
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| airBaltic | Seasonal: Riga
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| Animawings | Seasonal: Bucharest–Otopeni (begins 6 June 2026), Cluj-Napoca, Iași (begins 6 June 2026), Timișoara
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| Arkia | Tel Aviv
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| Austrian Airlines | Vienna
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| British Airways | Seasonal: London–City, London–Gatwick, London–Heathrow
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| easyJet | Amsterdam, Berlin, London–Gatwick <br /> Seasonal: Basel/Mulhouse, Manchester,
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| Enter Air | Seasonal charter: Gdańsk, Poznań, Warsaw–Chopin
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| Eurowings | Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart
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| FlyOne | Seasonal: Yerevan
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| Israir | Tel Aviv
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| Jet2.com | Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, London–Gatwick, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
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| LOT Polish Airlines | Warsaw–Chopin
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| Lufthansa | Seasonal: Frankfurt, Munich
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| Luxair | Seasonal: Luxembourg
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| Norwegian Air Shuttle | Seasonal: Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda
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| Olympic Air | Chios, Ikaria, Lemnos,
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| Ryanair | Beauvais, Bergamo, Bratislava, Kraków, Stockholm–Arlanda (ends 28 October 2026), <br /> Seasonal: Bologna, Dublin, Naples, Warsaw–Modlin
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| Scandinavian Airlines | Stockholm–Arlanda <br /> Seasonal: Copenhagen
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| SkyAlps | Seasonal: Bolzano
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| Sky Express | Athens, Chios, Düsseldorf, Heraklion, Larnaca, Mytilene, Samos, Paros Rhodes (begins 6 June 2026)
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|SkyUp Airlines | Chișinău
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| Smartwings | Seasonal: Prague <br />Seasonal charter: Katowice, Poznan Vienna
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| Sundor | Seasonal: Tel Aviv
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| | Zürich <br /> Seasonal: Geneva
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| TAROM | Seasonal: Bucharest–Otopeni
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| Transavia | Amsterdam, Paris–Orly
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| TUI Airways| Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, London–Gatwick, Manchester
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| TUS Airways | Seasonal: Tel Aviv
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| Wizz Air | Budapest, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Tel Aviv
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Statistics
Overview
Between 1994 and 2010, Thessaloniki Airport saw a rise in passenger traffic equal to 76%, from 2.2 million in 1994 to 3.9 million in 2010.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Passenger traffic per country destination (2023)
|-
! Rank
! Country destination
! Passengers
! Change %
|-
| GR
| Domestic
| 2,279,323
|
|-
| 1
| Germany
| 1,523,747
|
|-
| 2
| United Kingdom
| 556,806
|
|-
| 3
| Cyprus
| 453,330
|
|-
| 4
| Italy
| 367,252
|
|-
| 5
| Austria
| 222,262
|
|-
| 6
| Poland
| 172,433
|
|-
| 7
| Israel
| 163,828
|
|-
| 8
| Switzerland
| 153,419
|
|-
| 9
| Netherlands
| 145,285
|
|-
| 10
| Turkey
| 131,618
|
|}
Top airlines
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Monthly one-way capacity for 2016
|-
! Rank
! Airline
! Passengers
! Change
|-
|1
| align="left" |Aegean Airlines
|105,348
|8.8%
|-
|2
| align="left" | Ryanair
|75,789
|9.3%
|-
|3
| align="left" | Easyjet
|15,888
|1.8%
|-
|4
| align="left" |Ellinair
|15,408
|51%
|-
|5
| align="left" | Germanwings
|11,760
|13.5%
|-
|6
| align="left" | Air Berlin
|10,578
|51%
|-
|7
| align="left" | Olympic Air (NEW)
|10,062
|N/A
|-
|8
| align="left" | Turkish Airlines
|9,060
|4.9%
|-
|9
| align="left" | Air Serbia
|5,820
|2.1%
|-
|10
| align="left" | Transavia
|5,670
|0.7%
|-
|11
| align="left" | Astra Airlines
|5,284
|54.3%
|-
|12
| align="left" | Austrian Airlines
|5,220
|26.3%
|}
Transport
The airport is directly connected with the city's major road arteries in the southeast, the EO16 and the A25 motorway, which connects Thessaloniki with Chalkidiki, via the ΕΟ67. The Thessaloniki Inner Ring Road provides access to the A1 (E75) and the A2 (E90) motorways. A total of 2,285 parking spaces for cars exist at the front of the terminal building. A car rental service is available at the terminal building. In addition, taxi services are available outside the airport terminal building 24 hours a day.
Public transport
There are plans to connect the airport with the Thessaloniki Metro. Elliniko Metro, the company overseeing the project, has published a map of proposed extensions, and it includes an overground extension of Line 2 towards the airport. This extension is not an immediate concern for the company, however, since the terminus of Line 2, , will be connected with the airport by a 10-minute shuttle bus. Detailed planning of the metro extension toward the airport was initiated in March 2019. For now, the airport is connected with the Line 1 of the system at with a shuttle bus, with the number 02X.
In the meantime, the airport is served on a 24-hour basis by bus 01X/01N of the Thessaloniki Urban Transport Organization (OASTH), which provides bus services between the Thessaloniki Bus Station (KTEL) and Makedonia airport arrivals/departures.
Accidents and incidents
thumb|HA-LCR next to the airport fire station, in April 2018
- On 31 August 1995, a Mali Air Force Antonov An-26 after an attempted go-around crashed into a mountain 2.5 miles from SKG during an ILS approach to the airport in poor weather. All 6 occupants were killed.
- On 12 August 1997, Olympic Airways Flight 171, a Boeing 727-230 registered as SX-CBI inbound from Athens Ellinikon Airport, touched down late and was steered off the runway to avoid overrunning into the sea. None of the 35 passengers and crew were killed, but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
- On 17 December 1997, Aerosvit Flight 241, a Yakovlev Yak-42, operating the route from Odesa, Ukraine to Thessaloniki, lost contact with the airport's air traffic control and during the second attempt the aircraft crashed in the Pierian Mountains, near Mount Olympus. A total of 70 people, passengers and crew, 41 of which were Greeks, were killed.
- On 4 July 2000, HA-LCR, a chartered Malév Flight 262 Tupolev Tu-154 landed on its belly. The crew had forgotten to lower the undercarriage and the plane skidded on the runway. Thanks to the plane's robust construction and the engines' high position, the plane was able to become airborne again as the pilots applied full throttle. It circled while the crew lowered the undercarriage and landed safely. There were no injuries. It was considered uneconomical to repair the aircraft. The aircraft remained on site until it was scrapped at the end of 2018; the airline markings have been obscured and it was heavily depleted of re-usable spares over the years.
- On 15 June 2013, an AMC Airlines Boeing 737-800 on behalf of Astra Airlines Greece, registration SU-BPZ performing flight A2-921 from Novosibirsk (Russia) to Thessaloniki (Greece) with 160 passengers, landed on Thessaloniki's runway 16 at about 07:14L (04:14Z) but overran the end of the runway by about 110 meters/360 feet and came to a stop with all gear on soft ground. No injuries occurred, the aircraft received minor if any damage.
See also
- List of the busiest airports in Greece
- Transport in Greece
- Alexander the Great Airport
References
External links
- Thessaloniki Airport Official Fraport website
- Official government website
- Accident history for SKG at Aviation Safety Network