Fraport is applying to operate 22 additional regional airports in Greece

Athens. Fraport is banking on the tourism boom in Greece. The German group is one of three bidders who have now applied for the concession to operate 22 state-owned regional airports. These include the airports on the holiday islands of Naxos, Paros and Chios. Together, the 22 airports handled around 2.5 million passengers per year in 2025. For Fraport, the award would be an interesting expansion of its existing, profitable business in Greece.

Other applicants include the operating company of Athens International Airport (AIA) and a consortium made up of the Greek construction group GEK Terna and the Indian airport operator GMR. The 22 airports, which are part of the portfolio of the sovereign wealth fund Hellenic Growth Fund, are to be awarded as a package. The future operator will take over administration, operation, maintenance and expansion for around 40 years.

Fraport is already heavily involved in Greece. Since 2017, the subsidiary Fraport Greece has operated 14 Greek regional airports, including Thessaloniki Airport and airports on holiday islands such as Rhodes, Corfu, Kos, Mykonos and Santorini. Fraport says it has already invested around two billion euros in these locations.

The business has developed into an important source of income for Fraport. In the first half of 2026, Fraport Greece generated sales of 203.3 million euros, 7.1 percent more than in the same period last year. The operating result (Ebitda) rose by 10.2 percent to 86.5 million euros. The net profit increased from 4.3 to 11.6 million euros.

Traffic is also continuing to improve. The 14 airports handled 13.65 million passengers in the first six months, 5.4 percent more than a year earlier. Fraport expects around 38.7 million passengers for the year as a whole. International business is growing particularly strongly: around 10.1 million of the passengers in the first half of the year flew on international connections.

At the 22 airports that are now being discussed, international traffic increased by 14.4 percent in the first eight months of 2026. Although the total passenger volume only increased by 0.9 percent, developments show that smaller airports in particular have additional potential through new international connections.

However, this does not apply equally to all locations. While Kastoria, Syros and Skyros, for example, increased significantly this year, traffic on Naxos and Ikaria fell significantly. It will therefore be important for the future operator to combine investments in infrastructure with the acquisition of new flight connections.

That's a challenge. Many of the airfields now up for allocation have very little traffic. This makes it difficult to operate economically. Take Kastoria in northern Greece, for example: the airport handled just 5,057 passengers last year. That was an average of 14 passengers per day.

The airfields of Kasos, Kozani and Nea Anchialou also received fewer than 10,000 passengers in 2025. Another example: Kastelorizo, Greece's easternmost island with around 400 inhabitants, is only flown to once or twice a week from Rhodes in winter. For the Greek domestic airlines Olympic Air and Sky Express, traffic to such destinations is only worthwhile thanks to government subsidies.

Nevertheless, Fraport apparently has the confidence to make money with the concessions for the 22 airports. The Frankfurters know the Greek market and are committed to further growth. Fraport would have a possible advantage if it managed to leverage synergies with the other airports already operating in Greece. That's now 15. In the middle of this year, Fraport took over in a consortium with Delta Airport Investments and Pileas S.A., which belongs to the Greek Constantakopoulos Group. Kalamata airport on the Peloponnese peninsula. The contract runs for 40 years and the planned investment volume is around 125 million euros. Among other things, a new terminal will be built and the apron will be expanded. The number of passengers is expected to increase from 380,000 last year to around 700,000 per year by 2030.

For Fraport, the application for the 22 regional airports is about the question of whether the successful business with the existing airports can be transferred to other locations. The expansion plans come at a time when overall Greek air traffic is growing strongly. In the first seven months of 2026, almost 47 million passengers were counted at the country's 39 commercial airports. That was 4.9 percent more than in the same period last year. However, the boom is exacerbating bottlenecks in the airport infrastructure.

For Greece, the boom means a new phase of investment in air transport infrastructure. GEK Terna and the GMR Group are building the new Kastelli airport on Crete. It is scheduled to go into operation in 2028 and replace the overloaded Heraklion Airport.

Athens' Eleftherios Venizelos Airport is also reaching its capacity limits. The capital airport already handled 34 million passengers in 2025. This year, 35.2 to 35.6 million are expected. The operating company AIA, which is majority controlled by the German infrastructure investor Avi Alliance, originally wanted to expand capacity to 40 million passengers by 2032. But this number could be reached as early as 2028.