Do the Flyover roadworks affect your transfer from Thessaloniki Airport to Halkidiki? Usually only indirectly. The project rebuilds the inner ring road from K5, near Efkarpia, to K12, where the ring road meets the Thessaloniki–Nea Moudania road; the standard airport route joins that road farther south via the airport spur, so it does not normally use the works corridor. Completion is currently expected in mid-2027.
What is the Thessaloniki Flyover Project?
The Flyover is a major upgrade of Thessaloniki's inner ring road (Perifereiaki Odos), the bypass that arcs around the northern and eastern sides of the city. The official PPP unit lists a development budget of €483.5 million. The scheme upgrades roughly 13 kilometres of road and includes a flyover bridge of about four kilometres, nine grade-separated junctions and three new tunnels. Completion is currently expected in mid-2027 — the ministry has named 16 May 2027 as the target date — meaning the entire 2026 summer season falls squarely within the construction period. Treat the date as a target rather than a promise.
While construction continues, lanes on the affected stretch are narrowed or diverted, and when the ring road backs up, the overflow spills onto ordinary city streets. That knock-on effect is real, and it frames everything below.
Where exactly are the works — and where is the airport road?
The Flyover project covers the inner ring road from K5, near Efkarpia and the Papageorgiou Hospital, to K12, where the ring road meets the Thessaloniki–Nea Moudania road. The airport sits south of that corridor, by the coast, and the route to Halkidiki never reaches it: from Arrivals you follow the airport spur and join the Moudania road south of K12, without entering the inner ring road at all. The standard airport-to-Halkidiki run therefore does not normally use the K5–K12 works corridor — the road you take south is not the road being rebuilt. Restrictions during a project of this scale do move around, and stretches near the K12 end of the corridor have seen temporary closures, so treat this as geography rather than a guarantee for any given day.
Correction, August 2026: an earlier version of this guide incorrectly stated that the standard airport-to-Halkidiki route used the Flyover works corridor for its first stretch. It does not: the airport spur joins the Thessaloniki–Nea Moudania road south of K12, avoiding the inner-ring-road project section. We have corrected the route description.
Who is most affected by the roadworks?
The people the Flyover genuinely affects in 2026 are those heading into or across the city: a hotel in the centre, a pick-up on the far side of town, a day trip that crosses the bypass. If your plan pairs a Halkidiki beach week with a couple of nights in Thessaloniki, budget extra time for the city legs of that plan — our guide to getting from the airport to the city centre covers those routes. Because a jammed ring road pushes traffic onto neighbouring streets, even journeys that avoid the bypass can inherit some congestion at busy times: not a blocked road south, but less predictable traffic in and around the city. Bus travellers are a partial exception worth naming — the leg from the airport to the KTEL Chalkidikis coach station runs through city-side streets near the southern end of the ring road, so allow extra time for it at busy hours.
What slows the drive to Halkidiki?
Mostly the calendar, not the construction site. In July and August traffic from Thessaloniki heads towards the same beaches you are, and Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings are often busy, especially around holiday changeovers. That pattern predates the Flyover and will outlive it.
Rather than planning around fixed rush hours, check live navigation on the day you travel: conditions during a construction season change week by week. The Hellenic Institute of Transport, IMET, publishes comparative live travel times for the ring road and alternative city routes; for the run to Halkidiki itself, use a mainstream navigation app for reported traffic — and always follow temporary road signs if they differ from what the app expects. A delay on the outward journey is inconvenient; the same delay on the return can mean missing your flight, so give the drive back to the airport a generous buffer.
Practical advice for the 2026 season
The works do not change which transport option is best for the airport run; that comparison lives in our airport-to-Halkidiki guide. What they change is how you should think about uncertainty. A pre-booked, flight-tracked transfer — a car arranged through GetTransfer.com, for instance — takes the metering risk out of a slow stretch of traffic, provided the booking terms confirm a fixed total, so check exactly what the quote covers. A rental car from the airport gives you the freedom to pick a quiet hour and reroute as conditions change, if you are comfortable following live navigation. And if you land at night, know that large roadworks programmes sometimes close individual ramps overnight under signed diversions — follow the temporary signs rather than an app that assumes the old layout.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the road to Halkidiki closed because of the Flyover works?
No. The Flyover scheme does not require the normal airport-to-Halkidiki route to close, and the run from the airport joins the Moudania road south of K12, below the project section. Temporary lane restrictions, incidents or unrelated roadworks can still affect it on the day.
Does an airport transfer to Halkidiki drive through the roadworks?
Not on the standard route: the works rebuild the ring road between K5 and K12, and the airport route joins the Moudania road south of that corridor. What a transfer can inherit is spill-over congestion around the city at busy times.
Which route should I follow from the airport?
Follow the signs for Nea Moudania and Halkidiki. The airport spur feeds into the southbound Moudania road below K12, so on the normal route you never enter the inner ring road.
Does the return drive from Halkidiki to the airport also avoid the Flyover?
Normally yes: leave the Thessaloniki–Nea Moudania road at the airport exit rather than continuing north towards the inner ring road, and the works corridor stays out of your route.
When will the Thessaloniki Flyover be finished?
Completion is currently expected in mid-2027, with 16 May 2027 named as the target date. Until then, expect roadworks-related delays around the north-eastern bypass — the ring road, not the coast road.
What is the worst time to drive from the airport to Halkidiki?
Summer weekends and holiday changeover days produce the heaviest traffic on the Moudania road — Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings in July and August most often. Check a live traffic app on the day rather than steering by fixed rush hours.
Summary: the works are north of your route
The Flyover is a city bypass project, and the beaches are south of the city. Your run from the airport to Kassandra or Sithonia joins the Moudania road below the ring road, and the real variable is summer weekend traffic — the same as on any Greek coast road in August. Check live navigation before you set off, give the airport return a generous buffer, and the roadworks should stay a story you read about rather than one you sit in.
