Flying into Crete: Heraklion, Chania, Sitia — and Not Kastelli

The short answer: Kastelli is not an option

If you have seen the name Kastelli attached to a new Crete airport and wondered whether you could book a flight straight there, the answer is no. Kastelli, inland east of Heraklion, has been under construction for years and remains a building site, not a functioning airport. No airline serves it, no runway there is taking scheduled or charter traffic, and no travel plan, however far ahead you are booking, should assume a landing at Kastelli.

Every flight to Crete today arrives at one of three real, operating airports: Heraklion, Chania, or the much smaller field at Sitia. This guide covers those three, plus the ferry alternative from Piraeus, and works through the practical questions — which airport to choose, how the time difference affects your connections, and how to get from the tarmac to wherever you are actually staying.

The three airports that actually work

Heraklion (HER), officially Nikos Kazantzakis Airport, sits a few kilometres from the city centre and is by far the busiest airport on the island. It carries the widest range of direct routes from across Europe, the most competition between airlines, and — because it sits roughly in the middle of Crete’s long east-west spread — the most convenient access to both the centre of the island and, with more driving, the east.

Chania (CHQ), at Souda, serves the west. It is smaller than Heraklion but still carries a substantial number of direct international routes in the high season, and it is the obvious choice if your trip is built around Chania town, the White Mountains, or the Samaria gorge.

Sitia (JSH), in the far east near Sitia and Vai, is a small regional airport. It carries a limited number of seasonal and charter connections, mostly routed through Athens, rather than a broad network of direct international flights. For most visitors heading to the eastern side of the island, flying into Heraklion and driving is still the more reliable plan than trying to build an itinerary around Sitia’s thin schedule.

None of the three is Kastelli, and none of the three will become Kastelli. Kastelli is a separate, still-unfinished project intended eventually to replace Heraklion’s airport entirely; until it opens, it changes nothing about how you should plan a trip.

What arriving at Heraklion is actually like in high season

Heraklion’s terminal is compact, and in July and August that shows. Several wide-body and charter arrivals often land within the same hour in the early afternoon, and the walk from the aircraft to passport control and the baggage hall can end in a genuine queue rather than the quick transit you might expect from an island airport. Rental car counters and the taxi rank outside see the same bunching, so a flight scheduled to land at 2pm can mean closer to an hour before you are actually on the road.

This is not a reason to avoid Heraklion — it is still the most practical arrival point for most of the island — but it argues for building slack into the first afternoon of a trip rather than booking a tight transfer or an early check-in elsewhere on the island. Outside the peak two months, arrivals thin out considerably and the same terminal can feel almost quiet by comparison. May, June, September and October give a noticeably calmer first hour on the ground than the height of summer.

Accessibility at Heraklion is mixed by international standards. Many arrivals, especially smaller charter or regional aircraft, still disembark onto the tarmac by stairs and a short bus transfer to the terminal rather than a jet bridge, which can surprise travellers who assumed every EU airport works the same way. If you or anyone travelling with you needs wheelchair assistance, request it from your airline in advance rather than on arrival, since staffing at an airport this size does not always stretch to walk-up requests in the busiest hours.

Heraklion: the island’s capital, not just its main airport

It is worth being clear about what Heraklion actually is, because visitors sometimes treat it as a transit point to pass through rather than a city in its own right. Heraklion is the capital of Crete and its largest city, with roughly 180,000 residents inside the city itself and more than 200,000 across the wider municipality.

It is the seat of the Heraklion regional unit, one of the island’s four alongside Chania, Rethymno and Lasithi, and it holds the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, which is where you actually see the frescoes associated with Knossos — the palace itself displays replicas. A short walk through the old town past the Venetian walls, where the writer Nikos Kazantzakis is buried, gives a very different first impression of Crete than driving straight out of the airport toward a resort strip.

If your flight lands at Heraklion, you are not simply passing through the busiest airport on the island — you are landing in its capital, with the harbour, the museum, and the old town all within easy reach before you go anywhere else.

Choosing between Heraklion and Chania

There is no universally correct answer here; it depends on where your trip is centred.

If your trip focuses on	Fly into	Why
Heraklion, Knossos, the wine villages, the centre and east	Heraklion (HER)	Most routes, shortest drive to the centre
Chania old town, the White Mountains, Samaria, the far west	Chania (CHQ)	Cuts out a long drive across the island
A loop covering the whole island	Either	Consider flying into one and out of the other
Eastern Crete specifically (Agios Nikolaos, Sitia)	Heraklion, then drive	Sitia’s own schedule is too thin for most itineraries

A trip that runs the length of the island, such as a seven-day west-to-east route, often works best flying into one airport and out of the other, rather than doubling back to your arrival point. A shorter trip confined to the west, such as three days around Chania, rarely justifies the extra driving that landing at Heraklion would add.

The time difference that catches people out

Crete runs on Eastern European Time — UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer — which puts it one hour ahead of Paris, Berlin and Rome, and further still ahead of London. This is a small detail with a real practical effect: a flight that looks like it lands at a comfortable hour on the departure board can arrive an hour later by local clocks than it felt on paper.

That matters most in three situations — a same-day onward connection, a rental car counter with a posted cutoff, and a late arrival where you were counting on reaching your accommodation before dark. Build the extra hour into your planning rather than discovering it at passport control. It also means that if you are coordinating with anyone back in central Europe during your trip, from a driver to a tour operator, messages sent late in the evening your time are arriving even later theirs.

Getting from the airport to where you are actually going

Crete is a genuinely easy first stop for anyone landing at Heraklion and wanting to see Knossos with an archaeologist-led group rather than working it out alone, and for many arrivals that first day sets the tone for the rest of the trip. Whether you rely on a taxi, a pre-booked transfer, or your own rental car depends on your itinerary.

• Staying in Heraklion city itself: the airport is close enough that a taxi or transfer is straightforward, and you may not need a car for the first day or two if you are focused on the city walk, the museum, and Knossos.
• Heading straight to the resort strip: Gouves, Hersonissos, Stalida or Malia sit east of the airport along the coast; a transfer or taxi covers the distance easily.
• Heading west toward Rethymno or Chania: this is a longer drive along the north coast highway, and a rental car picked up at the airport is the practical default, since Crete has no train network at all.
• Heading into the mountains or south coast: driving in Crete away from the north coast means narrower, slower roads, and a car remains the only realistic option outside a handful of seasonal coach routes.

For a late-arriving flight, one choice is worth weighing honestly: push on toward your actual accommodation the same night, or accept a first night near Heraklion city and start driving properly the next morning. A flight landing after 9 or 10pm, especially in the crowded arrival window described above, can mean it is well past midnight before you reach a rental in Chania or a village on the south coast — driving unfamiliar Cretan roads at that hour, some unlit outside the towns, is not where most trips should start. Staying the first night close to the airport or in Heraklion city itself, then driving on rested the next morning, costs one extra night but usually saves more stress than it spends.

If you would rather not drive, the KTEL coach network is genuinely usable along the north coast corridor connecting Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos, though it thins considerably once you head south of the mountains. For a short first taste of the city before committing to a car, a guided walk through Heraklion with stops for local food is an easy way to get oriented on day one, on foot, without needing to navigate anything yourself.

What flying into Heraklion buys you that Kastelli would have promised

Part of why Kastelli generates so much interest is that it was designed, on paper, to solve a real limitation — Heraklion’s current airport sits close to the city and has limited room to expand. But that project remaining unfinished does not leave travellers without options today. Heraklion airport works, reliably, at real scale, and its proximity to the city is in some ways an advantage rather than a drawback: you can be walking the old harbour or standing in front of the actual Minoan frescoes at the museum within twenty minutes of collecting your luggage, something a more distant replacement airport would not necessarily improve.

For a deeper look at what those frescoes are, and are not, at the palace itself, see the guide to Knossos and the Heraklion museum; pairing the palace with a licensed guide, such as on a Knossos tour led by a licensed local guide straight from Heraklion, is a practical way to use that short distance well on your first full day.

Arriving by ferry instead

Flying is not the only route in. Overnight ferries run from Piraeus, the port of Athens, to both Heraklion and to Chania at Souda, each crossing taking roughly nine hours; Rethymno, Kissamos, Agios Nikolaos and Sitia also receive ferry services, and seasonal day boats connect Crete to Santorini. This is worth considering if you are already spending time in Athens, want to bring a vehicle, or simply prefer a slower, cabin-and-morning-arrival start to the island rather than another airport transfer. It has nothing to do with Kastelli either — the ferry terminals at Heraklion and Souda are established, working ports, unconnected to the stalled airport project inland.

Practical notes for arrival

• Confirm which specific airport your flight uses before booking anything else — some budget itineraries list “Crete” without naming Heraklion or Chania, and the two are roughly 140 km apart by road.
• Set your phone and any meeting times to local Eastern European Time on landing, not the time zone you departed from, to avoid the one-hour gap catching you at a car rental desk or a pre-booked pickup.
• If your trip covers both ends of the island, compare the cost of flying into one airport and out of the other against the time saved not backtracking across a 260 km island.
• Treat any itinerary, tour listing or booking site that names Kastelli as an arrival point as out of date or mistaken — there is no way to fly there today.
• For onward travel once you land, a rental car versus organised tours comparison is worth reading before you decide whether to collect a car at the airport at all.

Two more questions before you book

Can I fly directly between Heraklion and Chania within Crete?

No. There is no scheduled domestic flight connecting Heraklion and Chania airports, and it would not save time in any case — by the time you cleared security and collected luggage again, you could already be most of the way there by road. The only practical link between the two is driving, roughly 140 km along the north coast highway, since Crete has no train network to fall back on.

Is there a public bus from Heraklion airport into the city?

Yes, alongside taxis and rental cars, a local public bus connects Heraklion airport to the city’s central bus station, making it a workable option if you are staying in Heraklion itself and travelling light. It is far less convenient once your plans include anywhere beyond the city, since onward KTEL coaches from the central station still add a transfer rather than taking you door to door.

Heraklion airport and Kastelli, in short

Two airports actually connect Crete to the rest of Europe with real route networks — Heraklion and Chania — with Sitia offering a much smaller, seasonal option in the east. Kastelli is not a fourth choice; it is a construction project with no opening date that should play no part in how you book a flight. Land at Heraklion or Chania, adjust your watch for the one-hour gap with central Europe, and the rest of the island — from Knossos a short drive from the terminal to the old towns further along the coast — is genuinely close at hand from either one.