Getting around HER
Heraklion International Airport “Nikos Kazantzakis” is Greece’s second-busiest airport and Crete’s main gateway, run day to day by the state’s own Civil Aviation Service. Everything happens inside one terminal building, expanded in stages since the first one opened in 1947 — a new terminal in 1972, further expansions in 1996, 1997 and 2005, and a final one in April 2018 that the Duty Free operator paid for outright and finished in nine months. The airport operates around the clock, all year, and carries the name of Heraklion-born writer Nikos Kazantzakis, president of the Society of Greek Writers from 1945 to 1948. Ground handlers Goldair, Skyserv and Swissport — not the airport itself — staff the lost-and-found desks and the terminal’s VIP and CIP lounges. Twenty-five minutes down the coast, a joint venture of the Greek state, GEK Terna and India’s GMR Group is building an entirely different airport at Kastelli, aiming for trial flights in 2027 — this page covers the one flying today.
