Heraklion Airport

✅ Trip Verified | This is a quite terrible airport. The air in the upper floors is hot and muggy, the toilets are disgusting and it is much too small for the passenger volume. It just feels tight everywhere except the upper floor, where the air is terrible. The only nice thing about this airport ist the view from the departure area to the airfield and the sea.

Not Verified | This airport in the past has earned the worst ratings of any airport I know. Our happiness level in last seven trips to Crete for our vacation, has almost been destroyed by the absolute mess this airport had become. But, I can report that things have changed. In March/April of this year, they finally got the message, and did something. The check-in area still needs work, for the charter airlines but there appeared to be some improvements. The security check point has been improved, and it was flowing. The departure area has been totally redone! The area has adequate seating. The departure gates are far better than they were. The transport bus was actually at the departure gate before we were, and informative announcements were being made. The food stands have been replaced with decent restaurants. It far better than it was, now if they can just get the check in area. We flew with Aegean this time, and we were done in ten minutes, as for the charter side - God help you.

✅ Trip Verified | I was at the airport on the 30th June, 2018. There was no air conditioning, it was very very hot, I was suffocating, I couldn't breathe properly. Moreover, the airport is small, it was not clear where to go, and there were huge lines. Staff are extremely unfriendly - all they could do was laugh, talk back, be very rude to passengers and say that "it was not their problem". So it seems that nothing is their problem. But there was one thing that beat everything else. Since I am an experienced traveller, I am used to taking pictures of everything that can be considered to be poor service and then writing feedback. So certainly I took pictures of the lines. Then one man came to me and ordered me to delete the photos. I said no. He demanded that I delete them or he would call the police. I told him that I would not delete the pictures and that he might call the police - I will wait and talk to them. Then he called his colleague but he never actually called the police - I think this is because he knew he was wrong and had no right to order me to delete the pictures. Since there was no way out and staff were just unreachable I "deleted" the pictures. But the staff did not even know that all deleted pictures on a smartphone can be restored. I attach the pictures. I will contact the airport administration and demand that they take measures. I would not recommend the airport to my worst enemy.

✅ Trip Verified | Positively the worst airport I have visited. Would have rated it 0/10 if that was an option. We were subjected to a long delay waiting for our flight and subsequently spent a considerable amount of time at the airport. No wifi access available. The food outlet we visited (delicious looking food) we found the staff were surly, disinterested and unhelpful. The cleanliness of the wheelchair accessible toilets was non existent. I took photos of the cubicles no 29 - no toilet seat. Blocked toilet. Flush not working. Bins not emptied. Shower in pieces. Basin filthy. Floor disgusting. Broken office chair dumped in there. Why? I took photos of cubicle no 40 - large amount of cardboard packaging piled up on the toilet. Floor filthy. Smell overpowering and putrid. I found a cleaner who shrugged and told me she was going home. I spoke to information desk who told me to go upstairs to the airport authority. Lift not working so as I am a wheelchair user, someone else had to go upstairs. All offices deserted. The only good thing about this airport was the special assistance staff. Very helpful. Won’t be back. Ever.

❌ Not Verified | Chaos on arrival. Chaos on departure. Never again. Love Crete and love our choice of hotel however our experience on arrival mirrored that of 2 years ago. Luggage took forever to arrive at the carousel and then the "fun" really began. Two flights had arrived close together and everyone was pouring out onto the front of the airport where hidden somewhere in the melee were the Tour Operators Reps. The "system" still appears to be that one man tries to marshall people to huts where they are processed for private transfers/coaches. Having found the football sized crowd waiting for the real Rep. We had the forethought (from last time's experience) to ignore this and muscle our way straight through to the Reps. saying "private transfer" and we were soon on our way. Departure time was never to be forgotten - French Air Traffic Control Strike + the number of evening flights to UK + less well trained Reps than is normal + just one food/drink outlet airside = chaos beyond belief. Got through all the formalities better than expected but then so did all those travelling - little did we know what awaited us on the"other side" or as it soon became called "the dark side". Almost all flights had delays of 2/3 hours (giving us a departure time of 1am!) and we were certainly not the last flight, lovely island and people.

❌ Not Verified | It's Better! But only just a bit! There are still lots of room for improvement to make this a positive experience. It starts airside at the entrance to passport control as when we arrived only one entrance door was open so it looked like Devil take the hindmost as the people just off the bus charged to the front, regardless of the line of the bod's already there. The luggage collection has drastically improved, except identification of the delivery rotund as a lot from my flight clustered around another island. Departure was still an improvement over the experience of two years ago but I think that the summer crowds will not enjoy a good time, as at the moment Heraklon is still only patchily complete, the small bar/cafe is working well, but the male toilets have only one out of 5 of the urinals working, non of the soap dispensers in either the male or female toilets are complete. The two monitors showing Europe and International departures have to be shared by the passengers, gate attendants, and the passport control security staff! Also there seemed to be very few of the gate terminals complete, and that explains why the gate staff write on there hands what gate the next plane is going from! But not the limited space available in departures it’s slef.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst airport in the world. The lines are endless, the workers don’t mind how long will it take and how hot it is, you just wait. When you depart from there, you check in and then you carry your luggags to another counter to scan them. The worst is when you arrive to Heraklion : you have to wait at least 30 minutes for the first luggage of the flight to arrive (even in the winter when they have one flight per hour!). I really hate traveling from and to there.

❎ Not Verified | What an awful experience at the end of a great holiday. There seems to be a culture of contempt for customers projected by most staff. It can't just be low wages that make staff appear dejected and behave rudely. The departure lounge is being refitted so temporarily we are huddled into a makeshift area with one small kiosk selling sandwiches. No apologies for inconvenience, no one to forewarn the food pre-security is far better but instead a large shop to maximise profit. Really disappointing.

❎ Not Verified | Worst ever seen airport. Nothing changed after my first holiday 20 years ago. Its a nightmare to be there. Overcrowded, dirty, toilets old and dirty. In a third development country everything is better organised. A very good example for the growing tourist market is the airport of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Goverment of Creta build a new airport asap.

✅ Verified Review | This is probably the worst airport I have ever been to. Complete lack of facilities and organisation. The worst and inexcusable thing was the filth and lack of cleaning. There is no excuse for not keeping the airport clean. Half finished food and empty drinks cartons everywhere. We had to move from the seats we found due to the smell from the toilets 10 metres away. Avoid this place at all costs. God only knows what it's like at the height of the holiday season. The food was vastly overpriced too 4 euros for a cup of tea. Europcar customer service was awful too.