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The airport was opened in March 2001 to replace the now-closed Athens (Ellinikon) International Airport. The first arrival was an Olympic Airways flight from Montreal and the second one was an Olympic Aviation flight from Kythira. The first departure was a KLM flight to Amsterdam. The airport is located between the towns of Markopoulo, Koropi, Spata and Loutsa, about 20 km (12 mi) to the east of central Athens (30 km (19 mi) by road, due to intervening hills). The airport is named after Elefthérios Venizélos, the prominent Cretan political figure and Prime Minister of Greece, who made an outstanding contribution to the development of Greek aviation and the Hellenic Air Force in the 1930s. The airport currently has two terminals: the Main Terminal, and the Satellite Terminal accessible by a foot-tunnel from the Main Terminal. As of 2009, a new above ground link to the midfield satellite terminal is under construction with a completion date by the end of 2010. Once completed, the complex will be used as a Schengen facility. It has two runways that are each approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) long. The airport was developed by public-private partnership with Greece holding 55% of the shares. The airport is designed to be upgraded over the ensuing years in order to accommodate the increase in air travel, and its upgrades are planned in a six-phase framework. The first (current) phase initially allowed the airport to accommodate 16 million passengers a year, but was upgraded to 21 million passengers a year with out progressing to the next phase thanks primarily to IT advances. The sixth phase will allow the airport to accommodate as many as 50 million passengers a year. The current runways are designed to accommodate 50 million passengers a year with the completion of the sixth phase. In 2010, the airport handled 15,411,952 passengers, 5% less than in 2009.

Terminals...

During World War I the area that the airport currently occupies was used as an airfield and it continued operating as an airfield during World War II. At the time of the German occupation of Greece major projects took place, such as the creation of a 600m runway, while in 1948 the airport started operations as a civil airport for the first time. In 1950 the already existing (10/28) runway got paved with asphalt at a length of 1,800m and in 1952 it was extended to 2,000m. It was the same year that the first airport building was completed, with a control tower on the roof. One year later a new runway (16/34) was built. In 1958 the runway 10/28 got reconstructed and extended to a total length of 2,440m (current length), while runway 16/34 was extended to 2,400m, with its completion in 1972. In 2004 a new parallel taxiway of the 16/34, was opened for use. In September 1965 a new terminal building opened on a new location (current location). In the period between 1968 and 1973, the terminal was expanded, with the construction of a second floor and its first motorway junction. Due to the earthquake of 1978 in Thessaloniki, the control tower was destroyed, so a new one was constructed, independent of the main terminal building. The next expansion of the terminal took place in two stages, with the projects starting in 1991 and 1993 respectively. The municipality of Thessaloniki, as European Capital of Culture for 1997, took over a projects for the aesthetic intervention, renovation, modernisation and reorganisation of the spaces of the building. The terminal building took its current form, when an additional of 19,000m² were added to the western and eastern side of the terminal building, completed in November 2000 and June 2003 respectively. The western extension included the widening of the international departures area (new Extra-Schengen area ), including new administration offices, a new health station and the new station control of Olympic Airlines. The eastern expansion included a new check-in hall, new waiting halls and additional administrative offices for airlines. Today the terminal has a total floor area of 32,000m². Finally, during 2004-2006 the new motorway junction was completed on the level of the departures entrance of the Terminal and new parking spaces for cars, buses and taxis were created.

Terminals...

Between 1995 and 2006, passenger numbers doubled from under 15 million per annum to over 30 million, despite the impact of the September 11 attacks in 2001 and 2002. In 1996, the airport overtook Düsseldorf as Germany’s second busiest airport and currently handles almost twice as many passengers as the country’s third busiest airport. However Berlin is expected to catch up once operational as the city single airport in 2012. Munich Airport serves as Lufthansa second hub in Germany besides Frankfurt. Munich Airport is the second busiest airport in Germany in terms of passenger traffic behind Frankfurt Airport, and the seventh busiest airport in Europe, handling 34,721,605 passengers in 2010. It is the world 12th busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic, and was the 30th busiest airport in the world in 2010. In 2011 Munich Airport was named the Best Airport in Europe and the fourth-best in the world by Skytrax, the Air Transport Research Company. Munich Airport has already won the title of "Europe Best Airport" 2010 and four years in a row from 2005 to 2008.