Airports and Airtravel, Crete Island

Heraklions main airport is Heraklion international Airport or Nikos Kazantzakis Airport,named after greek writer & philosopher who is born in Heraklion,Crete and behind the novel 'Zorbas the Greek' Nikos Kazantzakis. It is located about 5 km east of the main city center of Heraklion, near the municipality of Nea Alikarnassos. It is a shared civil/military facility.It is very accessible by buses or taxis.If your destination is in between the bus route Heraklion - Agios Nikolaos/sitia/ierapetra,then taking bus is not a problem,bus stop is just a meter away outside the airport.Major planes departs and arrives in here,some chartered too specially on the summer time.The airport is very busy and crowded during summer time so passengers are advised to come much earlier than the supposed limit time of check-in.

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You can reach SITIA by plane from ATHENS (El. Venizelos airport).
Flights are every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday operated by Olympic airlines.
The departure time is 08:45 and the flight is 55 min. (aprox).
The ticket cost euro 78,91 with taxes.

There is also a flight from Thessaloniki to Sitia via Alexandroupoli.
Every Tuesday - Friday and Sunday.
Departure from Thessaloniki 06:50
Departure from Alexandroupoli 08:05
Arrival to Sitia 10:15.
Flight number OA 958 by Olympic-airlines.
Total cost from Thessaloniki euro 126 with taxes.
Total cost from Alexandroupoli euro 80 with taxes.

Sure you could take the ferry all the way from Pireaus to Crete, but it's an awfully long trip. I prefer to fly distances like that instead. In the past I have flown on Olympic Airlines and thought it was just fine. This time I flew on Aegean Airlines and thought it was a little better. The main reason I chose Aegean is that I was able to get much lower prices directly from its web site than I could get from Olympic even on places like Travelocity.com or Expedia.com. I highly recommend you go directly through Aegean's web site for this reason. They also have special deals sometimes.

Iraklion's airport, just like Hania's, is located just outside of the city. Iraklion's is closer, at only 4 kilometers away. It also is the busier of the tow airports, with more flights to more places, so your chances of finding a flight to suit your needs is better here. Many people I talked to had serious delays flying into Iraklion, so be prepared.

The airport of Hania is located at Sternes, in Akrotiri, 14 km east of the town. Being one of 3 airports on Crete, it is the cheapest flight to and from Athens.

Public transport to and from the airport is fairly frequent, and there are the ubiquitous car rental agencies inside for those who prefer to drive themselves. Here are the two agencies I dealt with:

Pangosmio Rental Cars
http://www.greece-rent-a-car.com/chania.html
(+30) 2810 811-750

Hertz
www.hertz.com/
(30) 2821063385

There are two international airports operating in the island in Heraklion and in Chania. The island is connected with most of the airports in Greece, many European countries and Cyprus, with regular or charter flights.

There are two airports at Crete, Iraklion and Chania. If you're going to visit the west-part of the island, make sure you'll be going to Chania, it will save you a lot of time.

Aegean Airlines is a new company that travels in domestic and national directions.You can flight to Herakleio or Chania. With 737 boeing and Arj-100 its a 30' trip from Athens international airport.