{"id":56645,"date":"2024-07-28T23:22:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T21:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=56645"},"modified":"2026-02-21T03:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:33:20","slug":"an-exploration-of-the-former-ellinikon-international-airport-south-of-athens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/07\/28\/an-exploration-of-the-former-ellinikon-international-airport-south-of-athens\/","title":{"rendered":"An exploration of the former Ellinikon International Airport, south of Athens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1938, a few kilometres south of Athens, the capital of Greece, the then called Kalamaki Aerodrome was opened.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/03\/02\/green-line-the-no-mans-land-that-has-separated-the-two-halves-of-the-island-of-cyprus-since-1974\/\">Green Line, the no man's land that has separated the two halves of the island of Cyprus since 1974<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/09\/15\/victorville-aircraft-boneyard-the-place-where-hundreds-of-aviation-giants-rest\/\">Victorville aircraft boneyard, the place where hundreds of aviation giants rest<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Its operations did not last long, as <strong>during the German invasion of Greece in World War II, it was converted into a base for the Luftwaffe<\/strong>, the German air force. After the war, Greece authorized the United States to use this facility for military purposes, becoming the <strong>Hassani Air Base, renamed Hellenikin in 1976<\/strong> and operational until 1993.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to serving as a military base, <strong>Ellinikon International Airport continued to operate as a civilian facility<\/strong>, serving as the base of operations for the Greek airline Olympic Airways since 1957. <strong>Ellinikon was a dangerous airport due to its short runway and surroundings<\/strong>, so plans were made for a new airport and part of the Ellinikon site to be repurposed for sports facilities in advance of the 2004 Athens Olympics. <strong>Ellinikon ceased operations on 28 March 2001<\/strong>, being replaced by Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Since then, Ellinikon has been abandoned but guarded.<\/strong> There are several abandoned aircraft on its apron, including an Olympic Airways Boeing 747-200, SX-OAB (MSN 20825), built in 1973 and operated by Aerolineas Argentinas for three months in 1996 and abandoned at Ellinikon since the airport's closure. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ExploringtheUnbeatenPath\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Exploring the Unbeaten Path<\/a> <strong>has published an interesting video today exploring this former airport:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Exploring an abandoned INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT | URBEX\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cNFPKu9kQ24?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can see some screenshots from this video here. Here we can see <strong>some buildings and lighting towers from the old airport<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53887544188_96258da76f_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>An aerial view of the Boeing 747-200 SX-OAB<\/strong>, named \"Olympic Eagle.\" The aircraft does not retain its four engines.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53886402982_f4aac88fa4_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The interior of the old airport facilities<\/strong>. Judging by the state of some rooms, it seems that the old airport was used to house Syrian refugees a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53887650414_8c6a8c8c22_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Boeing 747-200 we have already seen, <strong>this Boeing 737-284A from 1976, SX-BCA, is also abandoned at Ellinikon<\/strong>. It has no wings, no engines, no fins or stabilizers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53887315156_a8aed6cc82_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1938, a few kilometres south of Athens, the capital of Greece, the then called Kalamaki Aerodrome was opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17020,16877],"tags":[22353,1096,6680,22352,15305,22354,22355,22351],"class_list":["post-56645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-aviation","category-ruins","tag-athens","tag-boeing-737","tag-boeing-747","tag-ellinikon-international-airport","tag-greece","tag-hassani-air-base","tag-hellenikon-air-base","tag-olympic-airways"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-20 04:12:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}