2025 Agenda

Greece, sixteenth-largest economy in the European Union, is a country whose touristic industry is vital in its economic prosperity. According to the statistics, travel and tourism industries accounted for more than 18 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product of 2022, and in 2022 Greece achieved ninth spot on the top-ten rankings list for the world’s most visited international destinations.
In consequence, aviation in general and Air Traffic Management in particular plays a fundamental role in supporting these travel and tourism industries and consequently in the well-being and prosperity of the Greek society.
Athens Eleftherios Venizelos airport (LGAV) is Greece’s busiest airport and ranks within Europe’s top 20 airports by number of passengers. The airport began operations on 28 March 2001 (in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics), and since then has growth by 34% the number of aircraft movements it operates every year. With its dual parallel runway system, it has potential to continue serving even more traffic while maintaining excellent levels of service to passengers and airlines.
DFS Aviation Services, certified Air Navigation Service Provider and daughter company of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung was awarded in September 2023 by the airport’s operator company Athens International Airport S.A. to provide its consulting services for Greek Air Navigation Service Provider HASP in the redesign the Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA) of Athens and development of Performance Based Navigation (PBN) flight procedures for Athens airport. To execute specific aspects of the project, Dutch subcontractors to70 and NLR have contributed their specialized knowledge as well.
As of March 2024, PBN overlay procedures have been successfully implemented to prepare the ground for further progress. This procedure “go-live” marked the first significant milestone and the “PBN under existing TMA” phase of the project could be completed. The project team managed to set up this achievement in a breathtaking manner in just under a half year timeframe.
Since then and throughout the next 2 years, the team of experts from DFS Group will work closely with AIA and HASP to further develop a new state-of-the-art TMA design for Athens that when it goes into operation will satisfy the various stakeholders of such complex projects. The successful execution of this project is projected to facilitate parallel independent runway operations at LGAV to the greatest extent possible. This improvement will lead to increased aircraft movements, reduced delays for airlines and passengers, and notably less workload for air traffic controllers, while maintaining the highest standards of safety.
Join us in this exciting presentation about this exciting project, where we will show what progresses have been made in the last year and how DFS Group plans to further lead the assignment to success. Dive into the phases of the project, the tools and techniques we use for airspace design, and finally how we want to keep the trustful relationship with the stakeholders and communities affected by the new Athens TMA.