Athens airport raises doubts

The new airport is Greece's largest infrastructure project

The new Athens international airport opened on Tuesday amid doubts over its infrastructure and safety standards as well as concerns over its road accessibility.

It was one of the elements that we presented some years before in order to have the Olympic Games here in Athens

Greek transport minister

The $2.5 billion Spata airport is being launched several days after new calls on Greece to speed up preparations for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Earlier this month the civil aviation workers' union said it had found 180 things wrong with the airport, from inadequate firefighting to problematic radar.

But the Greek government appears confident for the 10-year project.

For Greek leaders, the project was bait to lure Olympic executives.

Greek transport minister, Christos Verelis said: "It was one of the elements that we presented some years before in order to have the Olympic Games here in Athens".

Road links

The new airport, 30km east of Athens, is being rushed into service within 48 hours.

The Greek carrier has announced it will increase fares

A convoy of 1,400 lorries has started ferrying equipment and personnel from the old airport, which will finally close to commercial flights in midweek.

The inauguration was postponed for four weeks after fears that the Spata road link would not be ready on time.

The Greek authorities have only opened the first 21km of the planned 65km highway that will connect the airport with Athens northern suburbs.

According to reports, the Spata airport will result add to Athen's traffic problems.

The final capacity envisioned for the airport is 50 million passengers a year.

Fares

The issue of higher charges at the new airport has also been raised as it is expected to be the fourth most expensive in the European Union.

The Greek carrier Olympic Airways has announced it will have to increase domestic fares by 10% and international fares by up to 4% to meet increased usage fees.

There are also safety concerns centred over the large numbers of television and radio antennas perched close to the airport.

The government promised to relocate the antennas but nearby local councils expressed strong opposition to their presence, while some radio stations claimed their broadcast signals would be weakened.