A port worker has died at the Piraeus Port Cruise Terminal in Athens while loading baggage on a cruise ship. The 62-year-old dock worker collapsed and was given CPR. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead.
Pantelis Georgiou was employed by a private contractor at the port. It is unclear which cruise ship he was working on at the time. There were three cruise ships in port on the day of the incident.
These were Celestyal Discovery and Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas, which both boarded guests. Viking Vesta also visited on a port call.
Union Calls for Investigation
The PPA Union, which represents port workers, called for a full investigation into the cause of death and publish any findings, so that “any responsibilities can be properly attributed.”
“In recent years, the number of colleagues who die on the job has increased alarmingly. Health and safety issues are fundamental and vital, yet we see no effective government action. On the contrary, the situation is deteriorating,” the union said in a statement.
The Port of Piraeus set a new record for cruise passenger traffic in 2024, welcoming 1.7 million cruise passengers. It also set a new record for homeporting, handling one million on homeported ships, up from 800,000 in 2023.
The total number of cruise ship calls at Piraeus rose to more than 800 in 2024, with port officials expecting another record year in 2025. It has confirmed bookings with cruise lines for 940 cruise ship visits during 2025.
It comes as Greece recently rolled out new cruise passenger fees for Greek ports. It is a two-tier system with a premium charged for visits to Greece’s top cruise destinations of Santorini and Mykonos.
Here, guests pay up to 20 euros, while visits to other ports like Corfu and Rhodes pay 5 euros. The fee is based on the time of year, with lower fees payable during the shoulder and low season.
