Greece signs concession for new Crete airport

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece on Thursday signed a concession allowing a Greek-Indian consortium to build a new airport on Crete, its biggest island.

Ariadne Airport Group, a joint venture between India's GMR Airports and Greek contractor GEK Terna, was awarded the contract for the 850-million-euro ($962.71 million) Kasteli airport project last year.

It needs clearance from parliament and competition authorities before construction begins.

Since 2010, Greece has made several attempts to build the new airport at Kasteli to replace Heraklion airport, Greece's second-largest in terms of traffic but which struggles to handle the 6.7 million passengers, mainly tourists, that pass through annually.

Greece exited a period of financial bailouts last August and is now on a path of tentative recovery, propped up by private consumption and tourism, with arrivals expected to top 32 million this year.

($1 = 0.8829 euros)

(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)