Crete Airports
Crete airports: Your first encounter with Crete Island
Crete airports are the entrance point to Crete for the grand majority of visitors. In general the airports in Crete are modern and well-equipped, in order to facilitate the large number of visitors from all over the world.
There are 2 main Crete airports: the Heraklion International Airport in the suburbs of Heraklion, the capital of Crete, which serves East Crete, and the Chania International Airport in Akrotiri, close to Chania city, which serves West Crete. Apart from the above, there is also a small airport in Sitia in East Crete for domestic flights, mainly to Athens and Karpathos Island.
Getting from and to Crete airports
One of the best ways to get from and to a Crete airport is by using a taxi. There are plenty of them waiting outside the airport terminals, and they are fast to take you to your place of stay.
Regarding bus services in Crete airports, in Heraklion there is a bus service that takes you from the airport to Eleftherias Square in the centre of the city. Regarding Chania airport, there is not a regular bus service from the airport to Chania city up to now.
If you have rented a car, or you want to, there are car rental offices in both Crete airports, where you can pick up your car when arriving and return it when departing.
Crete airports: The airport in Heraklion and the airport in Chania
Heraklion International Airport, the biggest of the Crete airports, is located about 4 kilometres from the centre of Heraklio city, in the Alikarnassos area. “Nikos Kazantzakis” airport, as it is called after the world famous Cretan writer and author of “Alexis Zorbas” and “Christ Recrucified” between others, is one of the airports in Greece with the biggest number of yearly visitors.
The airport in Heraklion, the main Crete airport, is very well equipped, and its terminals were originally built in the 70s. Although numerous renovations, improvements and extensions have taken place from that time, the airport is set to be replaced by a much bigger one, programmed to be constructed in 2015 in the Kastelli area, which will have the ability to cater for between 5 and 10 million yearly passengers.
Chania International Airport is the second biggest of the Crete airports, and the main airport of West Crete. For the visitors to West Crete, especially the ones to Chania region, the Chania airport is the obvious entry point to Crete, as Heraklion city is about 150 kilometres far from Chania city.
Chania Airport is called “Ioannis Daskalogiannis”, after the famous local rebel against ottoman rule of the 18th century. It is considered the most modern of Crete airports. The airport is based in Akrotiri Peninsula and is located 14 kilometres from the centre of Chania city.
Crete airports are among the busiest airports in Greece. They have excellent infrastructure, regarding both domestic and international flights. As practically all of the, more than 3 million, yearly visitors to Crete get to the island by air, Crete airports are big and very well organized in order to expertly handle the high traffic of the summer season.