Heraklion Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Disgusting, dirty, filthy, unorganised, disgrace to Greece, and public health hazard. That is just the toilets. The Airport is working well over capacity and ruins many a holiday. The toilets were in a disgusting state and judging by the number of complaints and reviews on this and other websites and trade press have not seen a cleaner for at least a year. The airport has allowed the word famous cowboy ground handling outfit Swiss port on the the airport which has meant they are constantly failing to achieve the low (non existent) level of customer service the company has become world famous for. Check in is not even organised chaos it is like something out of a silent movies of the 20s. With desks constantly changing and queues moving to other desks. Security would appear after you go though the check to the actual scanners to be run by TSOs who are down right arrogant and rude and treat traveller like something you find on the bottom of your shoes. Mind you if you have had the so called pleasure of using the toilets you may well have some on them. Then like most airports you have the gauntlet of the duty free shopping mail to walk before you find the only monitor displaying the gate information. Given the operating capacity of the airport, and the 11 departure gates. There is a quick turn round of the gates which the airports world famous ground handling company Swissport seem to be able not to manage. Their staff seem to think to use a tannoy system you need to should into the microphone, by shouting all they do is distort the message they are trying to get over. Yes, you have guest it this leads to chaos which the company are world famous for. When is IATA going to revoke the license to operate? While waiting air side I witnessed departure gate queues been barged though by cleaning staff and they were trying to mop the floor why people were trying to board aircraft. Last night the gate for our EasyJet flight was controlled by someone who claimed to be a supervisor who not concept of how to board an aircraft and that people had paid for speedy boarding, had easyjet plus or young children. However she just managed to grasp that there were wheelchairs. Once though the gate we had the pleasure of the swissports new game of are we boarding or are we not boarding. One staff member at the doors would open and one would close, after 20 minutes they started to board the coach which had pulled up. Then after the aircraft had boarded we had the pleasure of Swissport delivering the wheelchair passengers to the aircraft delaying the already delayed flight further. The scenes last night were more like a carry on movie than a professional airport. I would if I was the Airport General Manager consider a career change as you are not capable of running an airport even a Lego City one, the airport by its non existent management must ruined many peoples holidays, maybe the airport is on a list to be taken over by Manchester Airport Group who take pleasure in running airports into the ground.

Not Verified | This has to be the worst airport terminal I have ever used. Nothing works. Toilets are disgusting dirty and flooded with urine. Check in is a nightmare, flew with Tui and had to wait outside for 2 hours as the check in desks were having problems. When we did check in the queue lengths were horrendous, then on top because no belts worked we had to take the to a manual x-ray station. On the plus side they must have spent millions on the duty free as that’s very clean. Departure longe is clean but don’t expect a seat, while you wait. Will I return to it in a hurry, no.

Not Verified | If I could describe this airport in 2 words it would be outdated and disgusting. Been on holiday to Crete 3 years now and every experience at this airport has been just a pure nightmare especially when you just want to get home! Checking in your suitcases, let’s just say you are lucky if everything is working! One year the whole system had crashed so everything had to be done by hand causing 2 hour delays, standing out in the heat with no water or anything offered! This year we were told half way into this queue that we would have to move to another one because something wasn’t working! Didn’t really understand what was going on! This caused even more queueing which was not needed. Overall the duty free area since my visit has been updated and looks really modern. Surely they could invest time into updating everything else? This could include making sure there is more seating areas since majority of people were sat on the floor and also they could sort out the toilets that were awful. Absolutely disgusting and not cleaned to a decent hygiene level. Overall I think this airport could be a success more if money was invested in updating more factors of the airport to make these problems as minimal as possible.

Not Verified | Women's toilets are not cleaned properly, bins and toilet holders falling off, mop filthy and the floors need a good scrub with bleach. No sanitary products to help in emergency and staff couldn't care less. Don't buy your coffee/sundries in the waiting lounge as female staff look at you with content, bad customer service. Cleaning staff all fed up, I hope the management will make some changes. I am happy to come over and get the broom out and sweep out the cob webs and bring some fun to the grim lounge.

Not Verified | This has to be the worst airport I've visited. Please if you can avoid travelling to or from this airport. Arriving there from Manchester was a calamity. We were on the dreamliner from Manchester so quite a few passengers as you can imagine. Also they had a flight at the same time from Cardiff and one from Sitia. All 3 flights were on the same carousel despite there being 3 more unused ones. Once you're out of the airport you're free. Until you're due to come home. I read bad reviews and ignored them till I experienced it myself. There was a TUI Flight to Cardiff 150 + people and ours to Manchester 200 + people. They dropped us off and then told us nothing. We had to find the check-in desks ourselves. Once we had found them we found that desks 34 and 35 we're for the Cardiff and Manchester flights and the check-in staff were useless. They were way too slow, especially when a family came along. There was no co-ordination with the queues and people were pushing in and people were arguing with each other quite a bit. They then decided to open 36 which then had people behind us now in front of us, they never told anyone. People just guessed. If you're someone who requires special assistance too, don't go here. They have no clue what to do. When you're checked in security is easy but if you're on gates B1 to B7 you've got to then head out through some more passport control into a tiny terminal section with a duty free smaller than a shed and restaurants with horrendous queues. The seating, well what seating? There is hardly enough for everyone, people just sat all over the floor. Floors were dirty and again looked like they hadn't been cleaned whatsoever. We found out that we was gate B6 and then we went for a walk as it was 30 mins before departure and turned out it was gate B7 we boarded at. Again, no communication to passengers we had to figure it out ourselves. Special assistance people went to the front of the queue for the boarding agents to push them away and let everyone go down the stairs and then have them come down last. The ground handlers don't know what they're doing hence why we left 55 minutes late. If you're going to Crete try getting flights to Chania or Sitia first.

Not Verified | The chance to miss your flight is very high due to the ridiculous and inefficient check-in procedure. At the check-in counter only your luggage is labelled and weighed. Next step is to join the next long line to have your luggage check for the X-Ray. There are only 2 machines. Traveling in high season means a lot of passengers, a lot of stress, crying children, angry people. The airport staff is working on the well known Greek mean time. Slow, grumpy, arrogant, not interested. Besides this the airport is very dirty (toilets) hot and no chairs. You can check in any time you like but you will probably never leave on time. We had a final call because the gates are closing. Almost took 2.5 hours to check in. Complete disaster this airport. Never again flying to/from this airport.

Not Verified | What a mess! Late check-in counter information, unclear where to queue, waiting for 2 hours in line, a dysfunctional x-ray machine causing more delay, no seating, dirty toilets. Very unfriendly airport staff. Abysmal. Have no intention of ever coming back here.

Not Verified | Landed at 15.23 on July 24 went through passport control and collected luggage in about 30min. Departed at 1640 on Aug 7th. Short queue at luggage drop off, straight through security and passport control arrived at gate in 45 min from entering airport. Passport control is after the new duty free complex and all seating appears to be after passport control, so finding a seat and then visiting duty free is impossible. After reading reviews I was dreading this airport but I have no complaints.

✅ Trip Verified | This is my second time at Heraklion Airport. OK it is slightly better, more modern and superficially cleaner than 12 months ago. Check in remains chaotic and crowded even for Business and Gold Card passengers. Still no lounge on domestic or Schengen routes and this remains uncompensated as the airside waiting areas are totally inadequate, toilets hard to find and unpleasant. The food outlets appeared better but the staff were overworked and disinterested. No airport WiFi. We love Crete but this departure by air is horrendous each time. Is Chania any better? I even wonder if departing by ferry might be less stressful! Also crossing a busy road with luggage to the car rental lots is bad; also not disability friendly.

Not Verified | Well what can I say? Compared to the last five years, this was almost like being in the 21st century! I'm sure you have read all the others reviews and I agree with them all! However, they have done a lot of work over the winter and whilst I would never say it was great it was 1000% better than 2017! Had to queue outside but once in they had barriers for the queues, what an innovation! The check in get this, takes your baggage like a normal airport. Plenty of body scanners so no queue there either! Airside and another two innovations, air con and toilets that whilst not great were at least were cleanish! Compared to 2017, where seriously considered not coming back again, this was a positive experience. I’m not saying it’s great and is still massively overcrowded, which can’t see getting resolved any time soon. But finally they have listened (even if it took 30 years!) and have done something. Even the air side buses were new. Also the staff seemed much happier and helpful, not surprising having to work in those previous conditions everyone would have a sens of humour bypass.