(CNN) - After months of closure, Athens International Airport is preparing to "welcome the world" once again as Greece moves forward with plans to gradually lift restrictions on coronaviruses in an effort to revive its key tourism industry.
But while authorities hope that the gradual return of international travel from June 15 will eventually bring back the arrival halls of the hub of Eleftherios Venizelos, a few kilometers west, another airport will remain strangely calm - as it has done so for much of the past 20 years.
Located on the south coast of Athens on a site roughly three times the size of Monaco, Hellenikon - which translates to "Greek" - has been Athens' only international airport for decades.
The old airport complex was built in the late 1930s at a time when Greek aviation was still in its infancy. During the Axis powers' occupation of Greece during World War II, the site was used by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany and became the target of Allied air strikes.
Main gateway
After the war ended, Hellenikon hosted Greek, American and British forces, but by the 1950s it had become Athens' main hub for commercial air transportation. Major reconstruction work followed, including the extension of the runways, a new control tower and terminal halls.
With the rapid expansion of the Greek tourism industry, Hellenikon has served as a gateway for millions of people arriving from around the world to explore the archaeological wonders and sunny beaches of the country.
However, the weather has taken its toll and on March 30, 2001 - after years of debate and planning - Hellenikon closed its doors indefinitely to make way for a larger, more modern facility.
"In the 1990s, the airport had managed to handle well over 10 million passengers [annually]"Vasilis Tsatsaragkos, president of the Olympic Airlines Workers' Cultural Center, told CNN.
"Hellenikon has not been able to meet the country's growing tourism needs."
In 2004, parts of the abandoned complex were turned into venues for the Athens Olympics, hosting baseball, fencing, kayaking and other sporting events.
But years of neglect followed, and the 1,530-acre brownfield site - once thought of largely as a metropolitan park - was abandoned amid disagreements over its redevelopment and the descent of Greece into economic chaos as a result. of the 2008 financial crisis.
Neutral redevelopment
In 2014, a consortium of investors signed a 915 million euro ($ 1 billion) development agreement, a key element of a post-bailout agreement between indebted Greece and its international lenders.
Under the agreement, Hellenikon is to be transformed into one of the largest seaside resorts in Europe, filled with luxury hotels and apartments, as well as shopping centers, a park and a casino and an entertainment complex.
However, efforts to relaunch the project have repeatedly been blocked amid political opposition and various bureaucratic hurdles. More than four years ago, at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe, the sprawling site became an informal settlement housing thousands of refugees in harrowing conditions, its abandoned terminals and its Olympic facilities filled with the sea. tents.
Over the past year, the Greek Conservative government has committed to speeding up regulatory procedures so that the delayed redevelopment project can start, and some preliminary work is expected to start in the coming weeks.
Frozen in time
Some of its listed buildings that will be preserved from demolition include the old East Terminal building, designed in the 1960s by the revolutionary Finnish-American architectural firm Eero Saarinen in the 1960s.
Currently, a feeling of emptiness permeates its dilapidated and cavernous room at ground level. A short walk down takes you to what used to be a busy living room, now cluttered with debris from half-ruined walls and a collapsed ceiling that exposes heaps of twisted wire hanging above.
Elsewhere, a jumble of trash, broken glass, and discarded ledger books reveals the daunting magnitude of the decay, while faded tourist posters and torn maps add a somber note to the scene.
Outside the ruined structures, a small fleet of decommissioned Boeing aircraft, including an imposing 747-200 alongside a Boeing 737 and Boeing 727, is inactive at the edge of the complex.
The rusted and demolished passenger jets all belonged to Olympic Airways (OA), the carrier that for decades ruled the skies of Greece and became synonymous with Hellenikon.
When OA ruled the sky
Launched by business magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1957 following an agreement with the Greek government for the exclusive use of air transportation, OA quickly expanded its fleet and helped put the country on the world tourist map.
"It was the airline that connected Greece to the whole world - in 23 hours, Athens had" contacts "with the five continents," said Tsatsaragkos.
OA quickly became known for its unrivaled luxury cabin service, reflecting the lavish style of its Greek founder and one of the wealthiest men in the world. Its flight attendants were dressed in chic uniforms created by renowned designers such as Coco Chanel and Pierre Cardin while its passengers enjoyed their meals on porcelain plates with golden cutlery and crystal glasses.
After the opening in 1969 of the East terminal designed by Saarinen, which served all foreign carriers, the West terminal of Hellenikon was exclusively reserved for OA. Through its doors, a constant stream of celebrities - from Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren to Omar Sharif and Neil Armstrong - was photographed arriving in Greece.
But in 1973, the death of Onassis' 24-year-old son Alexander in the crash of a two-engine amphibious Piaggio plane shortly after Hellenikon took off shocked Greece and the Onassis family, and ultimately led to the end of the OA. "Golden age".
On January 1, 1975, Onassis officially sold the business to the Greek state and died on March 15.
In its first 18 years, OA's fleet has grown from 15 to 28 - including the technological wonder of the time, a Boeing 747-200B Jumbo purchased in 1973 for the Athens-New York route - but the carrier National continued major financial problems in the decades that followed due to chronic mismanagement.
Renamed Olympic Airlines in 2003, the carrier ceased operations in 2009, several years after its relocation - with the rest of the Greek aeronautical industry - from its former residence in Hellenikon.
But the memory of the abandoned airport and of OA will live in a new museum which will be housed in a reserved building inside the redeveloped site, according to Tsatsaragkos.
"We have collected 23,000 articles documenting the history of civil aviation and civil aviation," he said, adding that seven planes will be featured in future exhibitions.
"We continue to collect material. This museum is our big vision."
