Heraklion Airport

❎ Unverified | Worst airport I have experienced. Chaotic, crowded, noisy, unbearably hot, no assistance, poor signage, filthy toilets, poor food. Do the owners know how to run an airport? Do they even care? It seems not. Just in it for the profit. An absolute disgrace.

❎ Unverified | Worst airport experience in Europe. The underlying problem is that the terminal is too small for the amount of people passing through. Add to that the lack of clear information, changing information and unnecessary queueing in sometimes the wring queue. Definitely tainted our visit to a beautiful friendly island.

❎ Unverified | Worst airport ever! Crazy queue without lines. After 2 hrs queuing under huge heat, I finally make it to the control gate and I'm told thats not the right gate (which I was indicated by the information 2 hrs before). Went to another gate (I was the only person in the queue, how frustrating). I have asthma I had a great time! But thats not all, after finally ariving at the duty free shop, one staff came to find me again and said that my electronic boarding pass was not a ticket and that I needed to go backwards through control and check in at the easyJet desk. So I returned to the hall and had to go through control again! Madness.

✅ Verified Review | Huge queues, sweltering heat, full of flies and over flowing bins. Toilets flooded and no toilet paper. My young son was charged €8 for a small bottle of Coke and bag of crisps. When I went to ask for my money back I was taunted by an older woman assistant who wafted me away as if I was trash. Absolutely disgusting. Thompson, who we flew with should have warned us about this. Ruined our holiday.

❎ Unverified | Disgusting Filthy Airport! Yesterday 25th August 2017 my son and his family (wife and 7 year old child) flew home from Heraklion Airport after being on holiday at my home on Crete. Today, after I asked them how their journey had been they said that the Airport was so filthy that it ruined what should have been a good journey. All toilets throughout the Airport were overflowing causing 2 inch deep flooding on the toilet floors. My Son said that the stench made him feel sick when he had no alternative but to use them and his feet and trouser bottoms were soaked. He had to travel home in this condition. He did not venture in to 'Duty Free' because there was a thick layer of dust on most things. There was filth everywhere which is inexcusable when considering how much money the Airport must make from selling the overpriced food etc. I am about to plan a flight in a few weeks and I will certainly not travel from this Airport.

✅ Verified Review | Airport is very unorganised, unprofessional and extremely over crowded. Got moved 3 times beforehand finally being allowed to pass our suitcases over. Security was awful, got through, went to Everest to get some food where staff were extremely rude and unhelpful, only have half their menu on even though they are the only food place, covered my hot dog in mustard and when I asked to change it she walked off, complained to the cashier lady and she didn't do anything and tried to make me pay for it. Absolutely disgusted with the service from the airline Jet2 holidays and Everest, I will happily never come to this airport again!

❎ Unverified | Security checks were very light. The airport was sweltering - no air conditioning - and overcrowded, there were very few seats available. No shops save for the usual duty free spot and two food places which had run out of anything edible. Heraklion looks like a third-world airport and we will be trying to avoid it next time we visit Crete.

✅ Verified Review | As many other reviewers have observed, Heraklion airport is the absolute pits. Horrendous overcrowding, a constant aroma of sweat and stale pee, flies, and a serious lack of air conditioning. It's like walking into a mad house. This year I decided to check to see if there were any reasonably priced lounges we could book into to avoid sweltering for two hours with nowhere to sit and nothing to eat/drink as the thought of a trip to a loo that hasn't seen a bottle of domestos for ten years wasn't too appealing. We discovered the Evropi lounge which is situated just opposite the Duty Free on the first floor. We booked ahead and for 40 euros we had two hours of air conditioned, spotlessly clean seating and tables, with snacks and drinks included. Plus a clean, separate toilet. #result. Hearing other people's comments regarding the overpriced and dilapidated cafe in the main airport, we certainly got our money's worth. It was the best 40 euros we spent on the holiday. I would rate the Evropi lounge 8/10, but the airport? Shame there isn't a minus option!

❎ Unverified | What a mess of an airport. No air con, and was sweltering. However, whilst I can understand systems can have faults, their management of check in was nothing short of shambolic. After eventually showing the check in desk number (just one), people began to push jostle for position. Clearly, they had opened up more than the one desk (about 4 of them I think), but out of the two queues, the one on the side was being served by one desk, yet the queue on the right was being served by 3. All it would have taken was some barriers, so everyone queued up in order, and got served evenly by the 4 check in desks. To make it worse, we had purchased additional baggage allowance (with our proof of purchase), but no, that was not enough, so had to purchase again (so now have to make claim with BA). After sweating half our body-weight, we got through the security checks to find a cafe selling the most overpriced food known to man - again, not to be unexpected, but the state of the place was disgusting. Food lying everywhere, with empty packaging on the floors, on the seats some of which were completely broken (I honestly saw someone perched on a seat at a 45 degree angle). The ordeal was still not complete. They called everyone up to go through the gate. No order, like you'd expect, like first 10 rows - although they did call up families first, but this would be a fruitless call, as after families were called up, everyone else soon followed, only for us to be held on a staircase for what was probably about another 15 mins (I'm sure the families with babies really appreciated leaving their seat to then wait on a staircase). Finally, on the bus, and guess what - another free for all to the front and rear of the plane - you would have thought one person to direct certain seat rows to the front, and others to the rear. Of course not - cue idiots (OK, can't blame airport for imbeciles like this) with front row seats entering the plane at the back - you can guess how this went down in the cabin.

✅ Verified Review | Being a seasoned traveller I do realise that in some countries airports are not always a pleasant experience. However I was staggered that Heraklion was so awful. After having a lovely holiday on a beautiful island in Europe where everyone was friendly and pleased that you have chosen their island for your holiday, the airport lets it down so much that I probably will not visit again. The organisation was terrible with long and frustrating queues, not enough seating, inedible food, limited air conditioning (and certainly not where the BA check in desks are!). Finally when you are called through to board and quite right families etc are asked to go on first) we were them kept on a stairwell waiting for a coach to take us to the plane for another 40 minutes. Bearing in mind this was probably their last flight of the day probably didnt help but what a shame they cant do better.