Explore Crete island

Flights to Crete - GREECE

The main airport of Crete is Nikos Kazantzakis Airport Heraklion HER, flights arrive from Athens just about every hour in summer. The duration of the flight from Athens is about one hour. This is an international airport which also has flights arriving direct from Europe. The airport is 4 km from the town of Heraklion. There is a second international airport at Chania CHQ. Flights arrive here from Athens and also direct from Europe. 14 km from the town of Chania.
There is a small airport at Sitia JSH, which is due to expand its services, it accepts flights currently from all over Europe. 1 km from the town of Sitia. In Athens, the airport is Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport ATH, which was completed for the 2004 Athens Olympics and is a very modern and comfortable facility. The airport is located 27 km from the city and is well serviced by buses and the metro. With these services, getting to and from Crete is easy.

Within Greece all flights are a short hop, so you might think there would be little to choose between airlines. Purely on grounds of quality and service our favourite is Aegean Airlines (www.aegeanair.com), which ranks in our experience, with the best of European airline companies. (Cronus is now merged with Aegean.) A egean have a code-sharing agreement with Lufthansa - connections with Lufthansa hubs and gateway airports bring some of Europe "closer" to Athens, Thessaloniki and all Greek airports served by Aegean. Olympic Airlines (formerly Olympic Airways - www.olympicairlines.com), the national carrier, needs to continue improving its service. There are, however, clear signs of efforts in this direction (the new airport in Athens helps) and imminent privatization provides a catalyst for rapid progress.
SkyExpress (www.skyexpress.gr) is a regional airline based in Heraklion Crete, launched in 2005.
It operates an 18-seat Jetstream 3102 jet aircraft, connecting Crete to other Greek islands of Rhodes, Santorini, Kos, Samos, Chios and Mytilini (Lesvos), as well as Thessaloniki.

During the summer season, there are many charter flights from many European countries and cities to Crete. Below are listed in detail the airline companies that offer cheap charter flights to Crete from Europe, in both airports: Chania and Heraklion.
Flights to Crete from Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales. British Airways fly from London & Manchester to Heraklion. Excel Airways fly from the British Isles to Heraklion and Chania. Fly Globespan fly from Scotland to Heraklion. Fly Thomas Cook fly from England and Scotland to Heraklion. Thomson Fly travel from British Isles to Heraklion and Chania.
A good site to comparing the prices of low cost flights to Crete is cheapflights.co.uk
Flights to Crete from Austria. Air Berlin fly from Austria to Heraklion
Flights to Crete from Germany. Air Berlin fly from Germany to Heraklion and Chania. Condor fly from Germany to Heraklion and Chania. Hapag Fly travel from Germany to Heraklion and Chania. LTU fly from Germany to Heraklion
Flightsto Crete from Scandinavia. Fly Me travels from Sweden to Chania. Sterling travels from Scandinavia to Chania. Norwegian travels from Oslo to Heraklion.

Value Flights to Crete . Check with Olympic Airlines and Aegean Air, then compare those prices with a website showing bulk flight choices such as Flight.co.uk
Don’t spend too long searching for cheap flights, although there are some bargains to find, those tickets may be inflexible. Better to book well ahead and get a flexible ticket, and know that whatever you pay, your trip to Crete will be worthwhile and memorable.
Prices and tickets change very quickly and different specials are always available. Start your search with Olympic Airlines and Aegean Air and then your country’s carrier. We have found that the best prices and reliability come from the consolidators, as they have good buying power and can pass on those good prices to customers.

Charter Flights. Some seats are left on summer charter flights that are heavily booked by package travellers. These tickets can be really cheap, but have conditions attached or an inconvenient flight time. Charter flights from the British Isles leave London Gatwick to Chania and Heraklion, also from Birmingham and East Midlands to Heraklion. Manchester to Chania and Heraklion. Dublin to Heraklion or Glasgow to Iraklion. Cardiff and Bristol to Heraklion

Air Berlin has flights into Heraklion from most German capitals, Switzerland and Austria. Fly Niki travels to Heraklion from Germany. Again, the consolidators, via their websites, are the best source of tickets.