My first visit to Heraklion was two years ago when I came on holiday with my daughter. We arrived in the early hours at 4 am and it was very quiet and streamline. The airport is small and you could almost walk to the planes on the tarmac, but you took a short bus ride to the terminal and collected the bags easily, then walking straight out to the front of the terminal. On leaving, as we were on a package tours we had to leave at 3 am again. You will find that most of the large tour operators have early morning flights departing from Heraklion. On arrival at the airport I was amazed at the number of people at such an hour! It was heaving! The large operators had queues outside the terminals waiting for their flights and each line had the flight number on the front, There are seats outside, but you basically have to stand in your queue until your flight is
ready for boarding. On entering the building it was packed with people checking in - and I mean packed! The system is a bit disorganised in some ways in that you check yourself in first, your baggage is tagged with your flight number and then you have to queue again to have your bag scanned and taken. Going through passport control, again you have to queue, so dont be late for your flight basically. On entering the departure lounge as so many flights were departing (and some delayed) there again it was packed and we ended up sitting on the floor. Toilet facilities are adequate and reasonably clean. Advantage if you are a smoker is that you can smoke inside the terminal.
I now live in Crete and have used the airport many times at different times. Daytime seems quieter because as I say most tour operators use the early morning slots. I worked for a large tour operator last year and heard many stories of people being delayed in the airport and how awful it was. There is air conditioning inside the building, but as you have to wait outside of course it is still quite warm in the summer in the early hours and I can imagine daytime waiting could be very exhausting. There were some long delays on some flights. I dont think people really appreciate the fact that if an outbound flight is delayed this has a knock on effect with inbound ones. Sometimes this can be due to a technical fault and of course longer delays can result in staff being out of hours for flying there and back, resulting in crew changes having to take effect. My daughter works for an airline and many times does a 16 hour day and people just think that the stewardess just gets on board and flies. Not true! For a start they have to be at the airport for a flight 2 hours before flying for debriefing etc, so if a plane is delayed 6 hours you can appreciate they have already 'worked' for 8 hours. Most charter flights do a straight turn around, where the stewardesses stay on the tarmac preparing the flight for the outbound flight for an hour, so do your own calculations on the working hours and if a plane is delayed for technical reasons believe it or not this is for a passengers safety! Would you drive your car with dodgy brakes?
Anyhow, one of the things I did notice when working with the tour operator is that even though they are aware of a flight delay before collecting guests from hotels is that they do not inform them until arrival at the airport. This is mostly due to the fact that the hotels have to be emptied ready for incoming guests and I heard many complaints on this, particularly as due to the early morning flights you have to be out of your room by 12 noon unless you are really lucky in getting a time extension to 5 pm (which you will have to pay for). Therefore guests get annoyed as they are in the same clothes for a long time, tired and wanting a shower due to the heat. Also many operators will also get you through to the departure lounge to clear the check in area until they inform you of a delay. The staff are not allowed into this area and therefore it is difficult for people to get information or voice their problems. Also food vouchers should be given at the check in desk if there is a delay, but this does not get done.
Any airport with delays is not a good one and we have all seen the pictures on the TV even at Heathrow with people sleeping on the floor etc. and as I say Heraklion airport is not a large one, even though it handles thousands of holiday makers per year. The good news is that a new one is scheduled to be built. Not sure when as it has not been started yet, but eventually one will come.
Dont be put off by visiting Crete though! The island is a beautiful area to visit and I am confident that you can have a really good holiday.
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Advantages: better than we expected, clean arrival facilities, wasnt too crowded on arrival, nice location, useful staff, shops, airconditioning Disadvantages: departure lounge, toilets in departures, lack of seating during busy times
ilusvm 29.08.2005 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Crete Airport
Advantages: better than we expected, clean arrival facilities, wasnt too crowded on arrival, nice location, useful staff, shops, airconditioning Disadvantages: departure lounge, toilets in departures, lack of seating during busy times
ilusvm 29.08.2005 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Crete Airport
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