With a super deal, the historic private airport – the first in the country – and the property of pioneering pilot and businessman Tassos Alexiou, changed hands. The “most expensive plot of land in Greece”, as the area of the late pilot is called, according to real estate circles, was sold by his heirs for 50 million euros.
READ TOMORROW: TRIBUTE TO GREECE’S PIONEER AVIATOR TASO ALEXIOU
The new owner of the dreamy privately owned peninsula between Costa and Henitsa, according to a report by Espresso, is rumored to be Irish billionaire Paul Richard Coulson, chairman of the Ardagh Group, a producer of glass and metal products based in Luxembourg.
According to the rumors, Tassos Alexiou SA. was bought by Coulson for €50,000,000, with the property on either side of the 700m runway valued at around €45,000,000. The additional amount of 5,000,000 euros also concerns other properties, such as the estate. With the big deal, the Irishman has the role of president of the company that controlled the property with the private airport, which operated in the 1960s-1970s and enjoyed great glory due to Tasos Alexiou’s friendship with Aristotle Onassis, as Alexiou had granted it to Olympiaki of Onassis for two flights a day – morning and evening.
In 2004 the airport was closed by the Civil Aviation Service, due to maintenance problems, while in 2008 the airport certificate was not renewed and thus the airport was closed permanently. Among the heirs of the late businessman is his son Alexis. The 55-year-old charming and fit Athenian, with the look of a mature GQ model, Alexis Alexiou, is the man who became a global case study having contracted influenza type B, Covid-19 and pneumonia.
Terrifying experience
March 14, 2020 for Alexis Alexiou will forever be engraved in his mind, as on his birthday the 352nd case of the coronavirus in our country occurs. The combination of influenza B and Covid-19 will bring about severe pneumonia, with the patient spending the most difficult moments of his life in the hospital ward.
After a difficult battle he will emerge victorious and will share his terrifying experience through his book “Triple Jackpot”, which will be released in a few days by Fereniki publications. “It is my personal testimony that I believe will give an answer to all the skeptics and conspiracy theorists, who think that the coronavirus is a lie and does not exist, but I believe that it can also be used as a scientific tool because I describe in detail the drugs that I was taking and the techniques I did myself.
Until then I hardly ever remember being sick. I was very healthy, with my marathons, sports in general from a young age, with a normal body weight and never a cigarette. I had all the conditions not to get it and finally I got it” he states, among other things, in his book.
The mansion in Spetses is in ashes
On March 20, 2022, the neoclassical Kalliga residence in the Agios Nikolaos area of Spetses, belonging to the renowned engraver and painter Lizi Kalliga-Alexiou, mother of Alexis Alexiou, was suddenly engulfed in flames on March 20, 2022, turning to ashes a historic collection of works of art and painted furniture belonging to the family with roots on the island since the early 1900s on the beautiful island of Argosaronicos.
The owner of the mansion, Lizis Kalligas, is the daughter of Petros Kalligas and the granddaughter of the great painter Pavlos Kalligas, hence her artistic DNA. In the early 1960s Lizi Kalliga will meet the love of her life in the person of the charming aviator Tasos Alexiou and together they will create a happy family with three children, Alexis, Nellis and Yiannis.
The stately mansion in Spetses and the beauty of the landscape were the reason for the first private pilot in Greece to look for the estate in the wider area -from Hinitsa to Costa-, realizing his life’s dream, to create the future personal airport, opera and event. From his second marriage, Tasos Alexiou had two more children, the beautiful sisters known in Athenian society, the painter Alex Alexiou and the internationally renowned jewelry designer Christina Alexiou, while in 2011 Tasos Alexiou passed away and the mythical estate with private airport “exited” by its heirs, in search of a new buyer…
