Ariadne Airport Group wins contract for Kastelli airport

Heraklion Airport /ANA-MPA Fanos Rapanis via Naftemporiki

Naftemporiki — The Ariadne Airport Group consortium has been declared the provisional winner of an international tender to build a new airport on Crete, and specifically at the Kasteli site.

Ariadne is a joint venture formed by Greece-based Terna S.A. and New Delhi-headquartered GMR Airports Group. If successfully implemented, the airport would mark the biggest Indian investment ever made in Greece.

The government has billed the public-private sector partnership project as worth up to 850 million euros.

The current airport that serves the greater Heraklio area, one of the major tourism and holiday destinations in Greece, is second in terms of passenger traffic in the country, behind only Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport. According to civil aviation authorities, 1.359 million passengers used the airport last August, up from 1.003 million in August 2015.