(CNN) — After months of shutdown, Athens International Airport is gearing up to “welcome the world” once again as Greece moves ahead with plans to gradually lift coronavirus restrictions in a bid to revive its key tourism industry.
But while authorities hope the phased return of international travel from June 15 will eventually bring the arrival halls of the Eleftherios Venizelos hub roaring back to life, a few kilometers to the west, another airport will remain eerily quiet — as it has for much of the last 20 years.
Located on the southern Athenian coast on a site roughly three times the size of Monaco, Hellenikon — which translates to “the Greek” — was for decades the only international airport in Athens.
The former airport complex was originally built in the late 1930s at a time when Greek aviation was still in a nascent stage. During the World War II occupation of Greece by Axis powers, the site was used by Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe and became a target of Allied air raids.