Flights to and from Crete

NOTE: Please note that we do NOT book flights, we have compiled this information for your convenience, to help you plan your trip to Crete.
 

Quick guide - what you can find in this Flying to Crete section:

Click on the links, to jump to the section you wish...or continue reading to be fully informed about all flights to Crete!

• About the airports in Crete

• Domestic flights to Crete - The Airlines

• Domestic scheduled flights: Heraklion timetable ~ Chania timetable ~ Sitia timetable

• About charter flights to Crete

• Direct charter flights to Crete from the UK and Ireland (information and website links)

• Direct flights to Crete from other countries

• Direct flights to Crete from Cyprus

• Flying to Crete via Athens from Europe, the USA or other countries

Airports in Crete

There are three airports in Crete: Heraklion airport (or "Kazantzakis" airport - code: HER) Chania airport (or "Daskalogiannis" - code: CHQ) and the small Sitia airport (code: JSH). Heraklion and Chania are international airports, Sitia airport is currently receiving domestic flights only (charter flights are expected to start in the future).

Heraklion airport access: There are regular buses between Heraklion airport and Eleftherias square (the centre); tickets should be bought before boarding and cost 1 euros to the centre. A taxi into the town takes 10-15 minutes and costs 12-14 euros.
[There is an official charge, included in the above estimates, when a taxi takes you to or from an airport or port. Luggage can be charged extra].
Parking: Has paid parking, just across the road, opposite the airport entrance.

Airport facilities: Cash/ATM machines for cash advances and withdrawals, exchange booth (See also money & currency in Crete). Coffee and snacks are available, as well as a sit-down cafe/restaurant. "Duty-free" shop and giftshops. Left luggage.
Tel: 2810-397129, 397136 (info 24hrs).
 

Chania airport access: At Chania airport there are only a few, infrequent, buses - a taxi is the best option if you are not renting a car. A taxi into the town takes 20 minutes and costs 14-16 euros.
Parking: There is paid (quite expensive) parking, running in front of the airport building. Long term (lower cost) parking is available a few hundred metres before the airport gates.
Airport facilities: Cash/ATM machine for cash advances and withdrawal. Coffee and snacks are available. "Duty-free" shop and giftshops.
Tel: 28210-63245, 83800.

Sitia airport access: by taxi or car. 5-10 minutes to town.

Parking: You can park at the airport without a fee.

Airport facilities: None.
Tel: 28430-24424, 22671.
(Phones: see Calling Crete & Greece)

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Domestic flights to Crete - The airlines

Within Greece all flights are a short hop, so you might think there would be little to choose between airlines. Purely on grounds of quality and service our favourite is Aegean Airlines (www.aegeanair.com), which ranks in our experience, with the best of European airline companies.
Aegean have a code-sharing agreement with Lufthansa - connections with Lufthansa hubs and gateway airports bring some of Europe "closer" to Athens, Thessaloniki and all Greek airports served by Aegean.

Olympic Airlines (formerly Olympic Airways - www.olympicairlines.com), the national carrier. See note above.

SkyExpress (www.skyexpress.gr) is a regional airline based in Heraklion Crete. It operates an 18-seat Jetstream 3102 jet aircraft, connecting Crete to other Greek islands, e.g. Rhodes, Santorini, Kos, Mykonos and Mytilini (Lesvos).
 

All times are local. For airline contact information & web addresses see below.    

Also below: Flights to and from Chania.

Olympic Airlines schedule - see note above.

Athens to Heraklion 

Heraklion to Athens

SkyExpress flights from Heraklion to Santorini, other Greek islands and Larnaca (Cyprus)

(Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Kos, Mytinini and other islands)
See the full schedule here

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Olympic Airlines schedule - see note above.

Athens to Chania

Chania to Athens

Olympic Airlines flies once a day Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday.
Schedule - see note above.

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About Charter flights to Crete

Charter flights are few in the winter, but there are many from end of March/April to the end of October. Charter flights to Chania and Heraklion from most European countries operate in this peak period, summer sun attracts! The number of charter flights to Heraklion is greater than to Chania.

When the new airport at Sitia is upgraded in the future, some direct flights will then make access to the east of Crete that much easier. 
 

Charter flights to/from the UK and Ireland (Eire)

To help you in your search of direct charter flights to Crete, we give you below a list of websites that offer these, with online booking.

Alternativeairlines.com ~ Flights from anywhere to Crete, including scheduled, charter and low cost airlines.

Justtheflight.co.uk ~ Flights from the UK and from Ireland to Crete - good system and clear booking layout...wide variety of flights.
Charterflights.co.uk ~ Again a good booking system and good flight selection.
Cheapestflights.co.uk ~ Also easy to use and selection is good.
Flymonarch.com or Avro.co.uk ~ Offering only Monarch flights - but there are many!

Flightsavers.co.uk ~ Shows which sites or companies should have availability of seats.

Airlinedestinations.co.uk ~ Shows flights from all UK airports, listing flights by airport region.

Thomsonfly.com ~ Heraklion to Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Glasgow, London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester, Newcastle. Chania to London Gatwick, Manchester.

Jet2.com ~ Budget airline is flying from 20 May 2008 direct from Leeds/Bradford airport to Heraklion.

Budgetair.ie ~ Flights from Ireland (Cork, Dublin, Shannon) to Heraklion.

ExcelAirways.com ~ As of 12 September 2008, the Excel Group (XL) has been put into administration and the airline is Not flying.

EasyJet flying directly from the UK to Crete. EasyJet has acquired the British Airways subsidiary GBAirways, and is now operating direct flights from the UK to Heraklion (March to October). There are 4-7 scheduled flights a week from London Gatwick to Heraklion and 2 flights a week (Tuesday, Friday) from Manchester to Heraklion. Operates from 30 March to 25 October 2008. You can book these online on their website.

Charter flights are also available to Crete from most other European countries, Russia, Israel and elsewhere - in some cases these can be obtained from local travel agents and online via various websites in each country. We are compiling links to these websites - if you have good recommendations please let us know.

Flights to Crete from other countries

Direct flights: (Most of these flights are available only in the summer, i.e. end of March/April to end of October)

Transavia ~ Flights from Netherlands (Amsterdam) to Heraklion.

Arkia ~ Sundor and Arkia flights from Israel to Heraklion.

Travemaker.co.il ~ El Al flights from Israel to Heraklion.

Air Berlin ~ Flights from Germany & Austria to Heraklion and Chania.
Condor ~ Flights from Germany to Heraklion and Chania.
German Wings ~ Flights from Germany (Cologne/Bonn) to Heraklion ("low-cost" airline).

EasyJet ~ Flights from Germany (Berlin) to Heraklion.

Aegean Airlines ~ scheduled flights Italy (Rome) and Germany (Düsseldorf, Munich) to Heraklion.

NeosAir ~ Flights from Italy (Rome, Milan, Verona, Bologna) to Heraklion and Chania.

Luxair ~ Flights from Luxembourg to Heraklion and Chania.

Sterling ~ Flights from Scandinavia (Sweden-Stockholm, Denmark-Copenhagen, Norway-Oslo) to Chania.
Scandinavian ~ Flights from Norway (Oslo) to Chania.

Norwegian Air Shuttle ~ Flights from Norway (Oslo) to Heraklion ("low-cost" airline).

Wizzair ~ Flights from Hungary (Budapest) and Poland (Katowice) to Heraklion ("low-cost" airline).

Belair ~ (site in German & French) Flights from Switzerland to Heraklion (Airlines: Belair, Edelweiss air, Swiss).

SmartWings ~ Flights from Czech Republic (Prague) to Heraklion and Chania ("low-cost" airline).

Alternativeairlines.com ~ Flights from anywhere to Crete, including scheduled, charter and low cost airlines.

Direct flights to Crete from Cyprus

Cyprus Airways & Aegean Airlines ~ Flights from Larnaca (Cyprus) to Heraklion. Their timetable is below.
SkyExpress also flies Heraklion-Larnaca in 2008.

Larnaca (Cyprus) to Heraklion

Cyprus Airways:

15.30 Wednesday & Friday, 17.30 Sunday, 18.50 Monday.

Aegean Airlines:

23.10 Monday, Wednesday (during 30 June to 15 September).
23.10 Friday, Sunday (during 6 June to 12 October).

Heraklion to Larnaca (Cyprus)

Cyprus Airways:
21.10 Wednesday & Friday, 23.10 Sunday, 21.10 Monday.
Aegean Airlines:

21.00 Monday, Wednesday (during 30 June to 15 September).
21.00 Friday, Sunday (during 6 June to 12 October).

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Flying to Crete via Athens:

All flights to and from Athens arrive and depart from the new "Eleftherios Venizelos" Athens airport at Spata, to the north-east of Athens. Read our information about the Athens Airport (access, transportation, taxis).
And the Athens airport website with useful information about airlines, real-time arrivals/departures, parking. Tel. 210- 3530000.

Travel to Crete via Athens to see the sights - see our Athens guide.
 

Athens - Flights to/from the UK:

EasyJet: Bookable online, the further in advance, the cheaper it is.
2 flights every day from Luton airport and 1 flight every day from Gatwick. www.easyjet.com
British Airways and Olympic Airlines: Both have regular scheduled flights every day.
www.britishairways.com & www.olympicairlines.com

Flyglobespan flies Glasgow to Athens www.flyglobespan.com.

Athens - Flights to/from Germany (low-cost airlines):

EasyJet ~ Berlin (Schoenefeld) to Athens
German Wings ~ Flights from Germany (Cologne/Bonn) to Athens (and Heraklion).
 

Athens - Flights from other cities in Europe:

Aegean Airlines flies from Athens to the UK (London Stansted), Germany (Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Hannover) & Italy (Rome, Milan, Venice, Naples, Genoa, Trieste, Turin, Catania, Lamezia, Bari) and Netherlands (Amsterdam), France (Paris), Belgium (Brussels), Portugal (Lisbon), Bulgaria (Sofia), Romania (Bucharest), Egypt (Cairo).

Check their schedule online & book tickets.

Virgin Express (or Brussels Airlines) flies Brussels to Athens www.brusselsairlines.com.
EasyJet flies daily Paris to Athens www.easyjet.com

Centralwings ~ Flights from Poland (Krakow) to Athens.
Eurociel was to fly from April 2008 south of France (Nice & Nimes) to Athens every Saturday. However their website indicates that reservations are suspended, so there might be a hiccup there.

Europebyair.com - Especially good for non-European residents*, offers FlightPass, allowing low-cost air travel within Europe. Now also offers flight queries and bookings worldwide.

* USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South America, Japan, South Africa, Israel residents.

See also Alternativeairlines.com for flights from anywhere to Crete.
 

Athens - Direct flights from the USA:

Delta Airlines:
Daily direct flights Atlanta (ATL) to Athens & New York (Newark - EWR) to Athens. www.delta.com

Continental Airlines:
Flights New York (Newark - EWR) to Athens. www.continental.com

US Airways:
Flights New York & Philadelphia to Athens. www.usairways.com

Of course, Olympic Airlines also flies Athens to USA (New York) and Canada (Montreal).

Reservations by phone:

Aegean Airlines: 801-11-20000, Athens 210-6261000, 210-9988300, Heraklion 2810-344324, 330475.
Olympic Airlines (Olympic Airways): 801-11-44444, Athens 210-9666666, Heraklion 2810-244802, 229191.
Cyprus Airways: +357 (2) 663054 (Cyprus), 2810-342776, 342789 (reservations - Heraklion), 2810-223462 (airport-Heraklion).
(Phones: see Calling Crete & Greece)
 

Airline websites (URLs or internet addresses)

Aegean Airlines  - timetables, online booking and e-tickets available
Olympic Airlines (formerly Olympic Airways) - timetables, online booking and e-tickes available
Cyprus Airways  - timetables, online booking and e-tickets available
EasyJet - timetables, online booking (London to Athens, direct London to Heraklion and Berlin to Heraklion)

For charter flights see above

For "island hopping" flights (getting to Crete via or from other islands) see here.

Disclaimer: We try to keep these schedules up to date for your convenience, but you should always call the airline to check flight times.

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