Crete has three civil airports: Heraklion (HER), Chania (CHQ) and Sitia (JSH), alongside two military airfields. Two of them are international. Heraklion and Chania handle scheduled and charter flights from across Europe, while Sitia mainly serves domestic routes within Greece. You reach the island by air or by sea, and these airports bring in most of the visitors who arrive each year from mainland Greece and abroad.
The three airports sit in different parts of the island, so there is a convenient gateway for almost any resort, especially during the summer high season. The two international airports, Heraklion and Chania, both lie on the north coast, roughly 150 km apart. That distance is the main reason it pays to pick the right airport before you book your flight.
Choose your airport by the part of Crete where you are staying, then work backwards to the flight.
Landing at the wrong end of Crete can add a long transfer, because Heraklion and Chania are about 150 km apart, so match the airport to your accommodation first.
Crete’s three airports use the following IATA and ICAO codes.
Heraklion International Airport (HER, ICAO LGIR) is the main airport of Crete. It sits about 5 km from the capital and is named after Nikos Kazantzakis, the famous Greek writer. It is Greece’s second-busiest airport and handles around six million passengers a year.
The first plane arrived at Heraklion in 1939. Given the politics of the time, it accepted only military flights of Italians and Germans, and it opened to ordinary passengers after 1946. Traffic kept growing, and by the 1960s expansion was clearly needed. A new terminal building and a second runway opened in 1972, and a full reconstruction followed in the late 1990s. The runways sit right on the shore, about 20 metres above sea level, which is why a landing can look as if the plane is settling onto the water until the land appears at the last moment.
The cheapest way into Heraklion city centre is the public KTEL bus, which serves the airport and the city. In the summer months a bus leaves for the centre roughly every 5 to 10 minutes, from 06:00 until midnight, with no service overnight. Travel time is around 20 minutes, and services are reduced on Sundays and holidays. Blue buses are city buses and green buses are regional services, so take a blue bus for the centre. A single ticket costs €1.10 to €2.00, and you need cash in euros. Timetables are on the KTEL Heraklion website.
Two intercity bus stations link Heraklion with the rest of the island.
Heraklion Airport is a practical place to pick up a vehicle if you plan to drive around Crete, since the rental desks here usually offer lower prices than the same companies charge at their other Cretan offices. You can compare options and book through car rental in Crete.
Chania International Airport (CHQ, ICAO LGSA) is the second international airport of Crete. It stands on the Akrotiri peninsula, 14 km from the city of Chania, a drive of about 25 to 30 minutes, and it is the second-largest airport on the island after Heraklion.
The western airport of Crete began in 1954 as a small local airfield. The first international plane landed about 20 years later, and the airport took its modern name in 2000 in honour of Ioannis Daskalogiannis, the leader of the 18th-century Cretan uprising. As traffic grew, the terminal was rebuilt in 1996 and again in 2005. Chania Airport receives around one million passengers a year, and it tends to be calmer than the capital’s airport.
A bus runs from the airport to the city of Chania for €2.30, from early morning until late evening. The taxi rank is directly beside the terminal, and a trip to the city centre costs about €30.
Sitia Airport (JSH, ICAO LGST) handles mainly domestic flights within Greece, with scheduled routes to and from Athens and Karpathos. Built in 1984 in the eastern part of Lasithi, it now plays a real part in the island’s traffic. The terminal was modernised in 1993, a new 2,100-metre runway opened in 2003, and since April 2014 the airport has also taken a small number of charter flights.
Sitia Airport is only 1 km from the city centre, with bus and taxi services on hand. The terminal is small but has what you need: a café, a bar, an information desk, an ATM and a rest room. Many travellers fly from Heraklion or Chania to Sitia and use it as a base for the eastern part of the island.
Sitia and its surroundings hold plenty of history, including the Venetian fortress of Kazarma, the Toplou Monastery and the Minoan palace at Zakros. The famous Vai, a sandy beach backed by a natural palm grove, lies about 30 km from Sitia; you can read more about Vai beach. A two-hour drive west brings you to Agios Nikolaos, one of the most comfortable resorts in Crete.
Kasteli, currently a military base near Heraklion with roots dating to 1940, is being developed into Kasteli International Airport to replace the existing Heraklion airport. Test flights are expected to begin in 2027. The military airbase, home to F-16 fighter aircraft, will become a civilian hub, marking a shift for the whole region.
The new airport sits on the southwestern side of the existing air base and covers about 600 hectares. Its runway will take larger aircraft than the current Heraklion airport can, and it is designed to become the second-largest gateway of Greece after Athens. A planned 17 km road will link the airport with Motorway 90, easing access to northern Crete and resorts such as Hersonissos, though the lack of a direct link to southern Crete has raised concerns about island-wide access.
The project also raises environmental questions, particularly the risk of polluting the underground water sources that supply much of Heraklion, and these are being addressed during planning. The Greek-Indian Ariadne Airport Group consortium, which won the international tender, is leading the build, with a budget of more than €1.5 billion, one of the largest infrastructure investments in Crete.
Crete has three civil airports: Heraklion (HER), Chania (CHQ) and Sitia (JSH), plus military airfields. Two of them, Heraklion and Chania, are international, while Sitia mainly handles domestic flights within Greece.
Most visitors fly into Heraklion (HER) or Chania (CHQ), the island’s two international airports on the north coast. Choose by region: Chania for western Crete, and Heraklion for central and eastern Crete. Sitia (JSH) is a smaller airport for the far east and domestic routes.
Neither is better overall; it depends on where you are staying, because the two airports sit about 150 km apart. Heraklion is the busier of the pair, with around six million passengers a year, and is closest to central and eastern Crete and to Knossos. Chania serves the west of the island. Pick the airport nearer your accommodation to keep your transfer short.
Crete is a large island, and its two biggest cities, Heraklion and Chania, lie about 150 km apart at opposite ends of the north coast, so each has its own international airport. Sitia adds a small domestic airport in the far east.
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