ATHENS International Airport will become the first European Airport to formally incorporate Minimum Service Delivery Standards in its freight & mail handling agreements.

The finalised MSDS was agreed jointly with the freight & mail handlers and in collaboration with the airport’s cargo community committee, based on over two years of monitoring work.

The new handling agreements will be applicable in the provision of cargo handling services for inbound freight and mail.

Alex Sioris, manager for cargo development at Athens International Airport, said:

“As the cargo management we concentrate our efforts on assuring the quality, safety, security and overall competitiveness for the benefit of airlines, forwarders and shippers. Because the Greek economy is quite small, our aim is to expand the transit cargo traffic for which we are ideally and uniquely positioned. The sea/air business which we started in 2006, is moving slowly and we have had good results, especially in moving cargo to the USA using bellyhold cargo capacity. There is a substantial market for this from the region. We invented SEANAIRGY, which expresses the philosophy of our new project. Within this, we have established a good relationship with the seaport as well as with the port and airport customs. The synergy is also working between the airport community and within our own management team. We are also financing the interim transport between Pireaus and the airport as an investment in the future.”