Greece’s leading airline carrier Aegean has welcomed its first guests to the brand-new Business Lounge, located at the extra Schengen area of Athens International Airport.
The new 1250sqm lounge has been designed to enhance passengers’ travel experience with unique aesthetics, functionality, comfort, and hospitality through state-of-the-art technology and upgraded services.
The modern space, which marks the airline’s fresh start to the 2022 tourist season, has been inspired by traditional Greek architecture and was designed by leading Greek architecture firm K-Studio. Featuring marble, terrazzo, glass and wood, it offers a contemporary and comfortable environment for guests to make the most of the new media lounge, social lounge, and quiet lounge; as well as the meeting rooms, two cafeterias and a restaurant alongside a wine bar.
“As the new Aegean Business Lounge is aiming to serve as a platform to promote Greekness, all warm and cold dishes as well as wines offered, come mainly from fine Greek producers,” announced Aegean.
The new Business Lounge will be open to all Business Class and Miles+Bonus Gold passengers, as well as to members of the Star Alliance network, where they will have the opportunity to experience all of Aegean’s unique services.
Athens took home the award for Best International Airport 2021 in the ’25-40 million passengers’ category at the annual Best Airport Awards held by ACI Europe.
Winners were announced at a Conference Dinner of the 31st ACI EUROPE Annual Congress and General Assembly, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Best Airport Awards recognise excellence and outstanding achievement across the entire portfolio of airport activities. This year’s 17thedition of the celebrated accolades focused on the many ways in which airports are not only responding but innovating during the COVID-19 pandemic while focusing on the airport industry’s sustainability goals.
Athens’ ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’ International Airport
“The busiest airport in Greece won the judges over by producing a plan for recovery that focuses on improving customer and passenger experience through the implementation of the Greek concept of ‘philoxenia’ or hospitality,” announced ACI Europe.
The judges particularly liked the way Athens Airport embraces AI and virtual reality (such as measuring passengers’ emotional engagement, offering a virtual assistant and a 3D virtual airport tour) in its bid to bring passenger experience to the next level.
The judging panel also highlighted the airport’s continued carbon management prowess, with ‘Airport Carbon Accreditation’ Level 3+ upheld in spite of the ongoing crisis. Furthermore, Athens Airport is not only committed to achieving Net Zero CO2 emissions by 2025 but also to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the airport’s efforts to increase the use of renewable energy at the airport was praised.
The judging panel comprised representatives from the European Commission, EUROCONTROL, SESAR Joint Undertaking, International Transport Forum and ECAC. Eco-Innovation Award submissions were held to scrutiny by the Advisory Board of ‘Airport Carbon Accreditation’, and the Accessible Airport winner was identified with the help of the European Disability Forum.
Winners in All Categories
Under 5 million Passengers
Romania’s Cluj Avram Iancu International Airport.
Toulon-Hyères Airport was highly commended in this category.
5-10 Million Passengers
Falcone Borsellino Palermo Airport.
Milan Linate Airport was highly commended in this category.
10-25 Million Passengers
Vnukovo International Airport.
Porto Airport was highly commended in this category.
25-40 Million Passengers
Athens International Airport.
Lisbon Airport was highly commended in this category.
Over 40 Million Passengers
iGA Istanbul Grand Airport.
Barcelona and Madrid Airports were highly commended for this Award.
