Ellinikon International Airport 4.21

Ellinikon International Airport, sometimes spelled Hellinikon was the international airport of Athens, Greece for sixty years up until 2001, when it was replaced by the new Athens International Airport "Eleftherios Venizelos". The grounds of the airport are located south of Athens, and just west of Glyfada. It was named after the village of Elliniko, now a suburb of Athens. The airport had an official capacity of 11 million passengers per year, but had served 13.5 million passengers per year during its last year of operations.HistoryThe airport was built in 1938. The Nazis invaded Greece in 1941, and Kalamaki Airfield (as the site was then known) was used as a Luftwaffe air base during the occupation. After World War II, the Greek government allowed the United States to use the airport from 1945 until 1993. Known as Hassani Airport in 1945, it was used by the United States Army Air Forces as early as 1 October 1945, as a base of operations for Air Transport Command flights between Rome, Italy and points in the Middle East. By agreement with Greece, the USAF operated out of the airport for well over four decades. In 1988, Greece decided not to extend the arrangement, and the USAF concluded its operations there in 1991. The airport was the base of operations by the Greek national carrier Olympic Airways.