Airport

The European Commission will next month present a set of rules for the safe reopening of air travel when coronavirus pandemic lockdowns end, including social distancing in airports and planes, the EU's transport chief said on Wednesday.

Some 33.6 million passengers traveled through airports in Turkey in January-March, the country's airport authority announced on April 7. 

The first-quarter figure was down 18.8% from the same period a year earlier on both domestic and international flights, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) said in a statement.

The aviation market is experiencing one of the biggest crises in its history, with the effects stretching from carriers' revenues to the jobs at all the companies in or related to the industry.

The number of commuters on Athens buses and the metro dropped by 50 percent last week and has fallen another 70 percent so far this week due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, according to Transport Minister Kostas A. Karamanlis.

Speaking on Open TV, he also said that intercity buses (KTEL) have reduced the number of their services.

Turkey welcomed 26.2 million air passengers in the first two months of 2020, the state airport authority announced on March 6. 

The figure was down by 2.2 percent from the same period last year, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) said in a statement.

International passengers made up 44 percent of total passengers in the first two months of this year.

A flight from Athens to Thessaloniki was delayed by two hours on Thursday due to low visibility at the northern port city's international airport, state-run news agency ANA-MPA reported.

Greece's National Meteorological Service (EMY) said fog at the airport limits visibility to 100 meters creating problems for landing aircraft. It expects visibility to gradually improve after 10 a.m.

Waiting for passengers with signs at the terminal is banned, in accordance with the decision taken by the security commission of Istanbul Airport.

The most important duty in the transfer of tourists belongs to the airports and Istanbul Airport needs to be built in a more modern and guest-oriented center, İsmail Şanlı, the regional governor of the airport said.

Lamda Development is currently locked in difficult and detailed negotiations with the Greek state over the division of the plot of the former Athens airport at Elliniko.

Fraport Greece is considering implementing additional non-obligatory investments at Thessaloniki's Makedonia Airport, including the construction and operation of a hotel. The German-Greek consortium has completed most of the initial 450-million-euro investment program in the 14 regional airports it operates.

Emergency at Glasgow Airport. Part of the runway was cordoned off because of a suspicious cargo on a flight arriving from Amsterdam.