ACES – Athens: 3rd Airport Chief Executives’ Symposium

The 3rd Airport Chief Executives’ Symposium (ACES – Athens), an Athens International Airport initiative hosted in Athens on a yearly basis, was successfully held on November 19th, with the participation of more than 140 top executives from air transport, the financial sector and the tourism industry.

The ACES Symposium aims, on the one hand, to highlight the interdependence between the air transport industry & airports and the development of the destinations they serve and, on the other, to undertake initiatives for the strengthening of Athens as a tourism destination.

This year’s ACES - Athens focused on subjects such as:

- the strategic topic of hub airports serving the destination and the O&D strategy vs hubbing  
- recent developments on EU Aviation Package

Moreover, during the works of this year’s ACES, the keynote speakers, Mrs Angela Gittens, Director General ACI World, and Mr Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI Europe, “set the scene” of the world aviation and referred to the ever changing conditions and challenges in the global aviation sector, whereas, in his keynote speech, Dr. Stefan Schulte, CEO, Fraport AG, referred analytically on behalf of the FRAPORT AG-SLENTEL Ltd consortium, to the privatization,  as well as the upgrade of the airport and tourism infrastructure at the Greek regional airports.

In the context of the initiatives undertaken each year for the promotion of Athens, the Athens International Airport CEO, Yiannis Paraschis, presented on the occasion of the Symposium a first “taste” of the new, inspired campaign ‘Speak AΘenian. Be an AΘenian’. The campaign, that will promote Athens internationally during 2016, will soon be announced and presented extensively during a Press Conference organized by AIA and Marketing Greece.

On the occasion of the 3rd Airport Chief Executives’ Symposium, AIA’s CEO highlighted:

“Our ACES – Athens Symposium, an Athens airport initiative well established by now, became, for a third consecutive year, an ideal platform of synthesis of ideas and opinions at the highest level.
As hosts of the aviation family, indeed at a very positive moment for traffic development in our city and our airport, yet in an ever changing and volatile sector that constantly evolves and is affected by a series of external factors, I would like to convey our most sincere thanks to our distinguished guests and to all contributors to the success of our gathering, that underlines the importance of the exchange of views and constructive dialogue.”