Heraklion Airport

The airport is a dump and needs some money spending on it. The toilets are disgusting smelly and no toilet paper. After security there was one cafe with 2 people servicing a huge long line of people. Other than the Duty Free shop here was no other shops. You couldn't even buy a newspaper! It has very few screens showing your flights and you can hardly hear announcements. Awful place.

Departing from this airport approx. 19.00 hours Friday 27th September. Crowded large queues ridiculous method of booking in your luggage to be handed it back so you can take it to another queue to have it X-rayed. The staff seem unable to organise anything and end up arguing with each other. Making your way across the concourse is almost impossible with the queues reaching the back wall and totally blocking access. I really liked Crete but the departure experience would probably stop me visiting the country in the future. If the Airport is so busy they must be raking in the money but appear to have no interest in improving facilities. In conclusion it would appear that they are more interested in your money than your well-being. My son travelled on the same day but from Chania Airport and unbelievably his experience was even worse taking two and a half hours. Get your act together Crete we are not cattle we are your income.

Frankly as a gateway to wonderful Crete it is so 1960's. it needs some investment in infrastructure. Checked in for a flight to LHR via Geneva bag checked all the way but the check in clerk would not print me out a boarding pass for the Geneva/London sector. Reason no idea nor did the reason at swiss port desk I can only assume bloody mindedness. I guess I should be thankful the bag was checked through all the way even if I wasn't! Check in and then queue again to drop the bag off is just a pain. The whole place is dreary and drab and the staff would clearly rather be elsewhere. I wanted a coffee and the chap just looked at me continued to stack his shelf and made me wait. Athens airport by contrast is great Heraklion one of the worst airports I have ever used (Cairo domestic the very worst). Do they realise that first and last impressions of a place are often what people take home with them as defining memory's. Come on Heraklion sort it out for the benefit of your own business. Remember we have a choice.

This airport was horrible! For some reason you have to stand in line for 1 hour while waiting to check-in. Then you have to squeeze through the queue to get to the other queue to deliver your bag to x-ray! Why on earth couldn't they just pass the luggage to x-ray themselves? This would free up space in the main hall. After two hours in line we finally got to the security area/pass control. Crete was nice but because of this I will never travel to Crete again! They probably loose a lot of money because people don't have time to visit the tax free. I was ready to spend the rest of my euro's.

Arriving at Heraklion on 16th June 2013 no problems luggage arrived quickly. Did not use WC. Departure on 3rd July 2013 to Amsterdam (Transavia 872): Clock in the hall gave incorrect time sleeping dog on the floor cat strolling about. Toilets not very clean. As I was early there were no long queues for check-in. I had to take my own suitcases to the security scanner. No long queue at the 2 cabin baggage scanners. The departure lounge: The announcements over the loudspeaker system was practically unintelligible. The ancient monitor (tube) with departure gate information was very dim and hard to read. When my gate number was finally announced gate 2 arriving there was a sign to Lypon on an old monitor with a tube. On the flatscreen monitor nothing. On inquiring why this was I was told "They can't fix it". Other screens also gave wrong destinations at other gates. It was not possible to print my boarding card in advance when using this airport. The catering was acceptable bottled water cost 50 cents and a baguette sandwich 5 Euro. Taxfree shop OK.

I frequent this airport twice a year from and to Geneva or Zurich for holidays. The luggage delivery system is very long (I waited more than 1 hour) and the airport is not very clean (toilets). The staff do not speak English very well and the organisation of the departures area could be improved. However once out of the building you forget all that and are amazed of the wonders of the island. It has to be said that the duty free store on the first floor sells very good products at advantageous prices. Because of the fact it is a military airport it is strictly prohibited to take photos outside.

Returning to UK on Aug 7 2012. Checked in quickly had to then go to a different queue and wait for about 15 minutes to drop our bags. Unexpectedly was queuing for 1 hour waiting to go airside as only 2 x-ray machines were available. When airside there is no tannoy announcements to call passengers to gates we had to keep running up and down the stairs to check the gate for our flight. We were the last passengers to board because of this poor system that is in place. Would rather fly to Chania then Heraklion in the future.

This airport is disgusting. After having a lovely holiday we arrived at least 4 hours before departure to come home when we arrived there was no signs to point out as to where to check in when we eventually found out we had to queue outside for at least 40 mins. Shelter should be provided. As the line started to move people pushing in arguments between people it was obvious the stress was taking its toll. Check in staff were rude and unhelpful. We had to sprint to the security area with another queue with staff working unbelievably slowly. By that time every one of us were stressed and panicking. We had 10 minutes to get to the gate. Only 2 x-ray machines were open for this huge queue. We eventually got to our flight on time after running to the gate. I will never return to this airport.

The airport was terrifying. For departures you have to line up outside for a good 30 minutes and wait as they let you in slowly since there isn't enough space. After getting the luggage weighed and labelled you have to take it yourself to X-Ray. Then you go to the Passport and Security control which means another large queue of people and for the whole terminal there were only 2 little gates and 3 X-Rays available. Inside the departures after all the controls there are only 2 small old fashion screens. Whenever there was an announcement to be made or a plane delayed the airport workers were running around and shouting to let the passengers know. There was 1 duty free shop which had a large variety of alcohol tobacco but there was no water or any other drinks. Haven't ever seen a worse airport and the facilities.

Inbound from Manchester was good about 40 mins from plane to road most time at baggage carousel. Inbound the queue for tags was 10-15 groups long then queue for x-ray went for about 40-45 groups. Security area was cramped considering the number of people who go through the airport but acceptable. Screen that had all flights contradicted gate screen and noise from nearby plane taking off was loud enough to cover my ears after 50 group long boarding queue. All in all not a top-notch airport but quite good.