Chania International Airport

History

The focus on civil aviation for the west of Crete has not always been on the current location. It was the airport of Maleme that served civil flights up to 1959, and dating back to the end of Second World War.

In 1959, this activity was transferred to the military airport of Souda. In 1974, the airport also began to serve international flights. Because of insufficient capacity, there was the need for a new terminal building. Eventually, in 1996, the new terminal was ready, measuring a surface area of 14650 m2, with 6 aircraft stands in front. It has a design capacity of 1.35 million passengers per year. In 2000, it was officially named Ioannis Daskalogiannis.

The airport is also intensively used as a military airfield by the Hellenic Air Force.

In December 2015, the privatisation of Chania International Airport and 13 other regional airports of Greece was finalised with the signing of the agreement between the Fraport AG/Copelouzos Group joint venture and the state privatisation fund. According to the agreement, the joint venture will operate the 14 airports (including Chania International Airport) for 40 years as of 11 April 2017.

In June 2018 Fraport Greece completed the new aircraft layouts, which are now using push back to double the parking space. The passenger safety area has been expanded, the number of hand baggage scanners from 5 to 8, the duty-free store space trebled from 400 sq.m. to 1,200 sq. meters, the VIP space moved to increase the number of boarding gates from 14 to 16 and the dividing walls in the departure halls were removed in order to create a space of 3,000 sq. meters. A new sewage pumping station was built, and the network (approximately 3.5 km) was connected to the municipal network. Electromechanical installations, including new motor control centres (MCCs), wiring, lighting, and electrical panels, were optimized. The apron lighting was upgraded, and the water closets (WCs) were renovated to increase the number of toilets in the non-Schengen area. Additionally, the escalator was relocated to better utilize the available space.

On 10 June 2018, Air Force One carrying U.S. President Donald Trump stopped for refuelling in Chania during Trump's flight from the G7 meeting in Quebec to the meeting in Singapore with the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un.

Fraport Greece's investment plan

On 22 March 2017, Fraport Greece presented its master plan for the 14 Greek regional airports, including Chania International Airport.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Chania Airport: | Aegean Airlines | Athens, Thessaloniki Seasonal: Rhodes | Air Serbia | Seasonal: Belgrade | Animawings | Seasonal: Bucharest–Otopeni | Austrian Airlines | Seasonal: Vienna | British Airways | Seasonal: London–Gatwick (begins 24 May 2026), London–Heathrow | Brussels Airlines | Seasonal: Brussels | Condor | Seasonal: Frankfurt, Hamburg, | Discover Airlines | Seasonal: Frankfurt, Munich | easyJet | Seasonal: Amsterdam, Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin, Bristol, Geneva, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, Lyon, Manchester, Milan–Malpensa, Nantes, Nice | Edelweiss Air | Seasonal: Zurich | Eurowings | Seasonal: Düsseldorf, Graz, Hamburg, Stuttgart | Finnair | Seasonal: Helsinki | Jet2.com | Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands (begins 26 May 2026), Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne | Luxair | Seasonal: Luxembourg | Neos | Seasonal: Milan–Malpensa | Norwegian Air Shuttle | Seasonal: Bergen, Billund (begins 2 May 2026) Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda | Ryanair | Thessaloniki Seasonal: Athens, Bergamo, Birmingham, Bologna, Bournemouth, Bucharest–Otopeni, Budapest, Charleroi, Dublin, East Midlands, Gdańsk, Hahn, Kraków, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Malta, Manchester, Marseille, Memmingen, Naples, Newcastle upon Tyne, Paphos, Pisa, Poznań, Rome–Fiumicino, Sofia, Stockholm–Arlanda, Vienna, Warsaw–Modlin, Weeze, Wrocław | Scandinavian Airlines | Seasonal: Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda | Sky Express | Athens Seasonal charter: Brno | Smartwings | Seasonal: Prague Seasonal charter: Debrecen, Poznan | Transavia | Seasonal: Amsterdam, Lyon, Paris–Orly | TUI Airways | Seasonal: Birmingham, London–Gatwick | TUI fly Belgium | Seasonal: Brussels, Ostend/Bruges | TUI fly Netherlands | Seasonal: Amsterdam | Wizz Air |Seasonal: Belgrade (begins 9 June 2026), London–Luton (begins 8 June 2026), Rome–Fiumicino (begins 29 June 2026), Warsaw–Chopin

Traffic figures

The data are from Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) until 2016, and from 2017 and later from the official website of the airport.

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Traffic statistics by country (2024)

Source:

Ground transport

The airport can be easily reached by car, bus (to Chania and Rethymnon) or taxi via the main road network.

References

References

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