International Airport Nikos Kazantzakis Review

Not a single antiseptic in the whole airport ... when I asked the girl if there is somewhere, I was just ridiculed for the unacceptable behavior of the toilets with the dirt.

Arrival area - toilet and escalator, a bus to the plane serves quickly. Departure - if early in the morning and flight to Schengen, arriving in advance and without luggage - is quite tolerable, not stuffy. I had a flight at 8.15, I arrived at 6. No queues, during the inspection the employee simply silently nodded what and where to put. They didn t even take 0.5 water, apparently, this inspection was purely for show. We see how the employees do not care about you. After the inspection, the deutsche begins, in it there are also taxes. Very little space, a lot of people. There are few seats near the gate, especially when there is one more seat before your flight. Wifi, of course, does not work. It s impossible to get lost, everything is nearby.

Unacceptable waiting..the announcements one on top of the other in order to cover the voices and not to understand what they are saying.
We have traveled to many countries and inside and outside such dirt at an airport we have never seen..the whole airport smelled.I am sad for all this situation that prevails at this airport

Absolute hole. There is one option for food post security and it is atrocious, not only is it hideously overpriced, ( 23.70 for a hotdog- 6.10, baguette- 6.10, crisps 3.80, Fanta- 4.20 and coke- 3.50)but it is cold, stale and undeserving. Staff also do not understand service. Eat before you arrive at the airport.

Landing and issue of the suitcases went great. The departure terminal is clean and obviously recently renovated. The staff at the checkin were all very nice. There are no delays today, we will definitely come back to Crete.

An airport disaster. Check in is not displayed. You have to ask yourself where you can drop off your luggage. The same for the gate number. And the sanitary facilities are so messy a disaster. (See pictures toilet man) In the waiting area there are 2 shops, both with the same chain, zero selection and prices overpriced.

Know the airport is 20 years, it has done a lot, compared to earlier.
One, however, I would strongly recommend
Check the scales at check-in, at home Large bag exactly 19 kg (Dusseldorf airport) Identically equal packed bag Heraklion 23.9 kg. Please pay later? So repack. For the second time already, so you can earn money.
Last year with Condor. Is not the other airline's only benefit.

The airport is old and ugly but the worst is that you have to stand twice with luggage. First to check in and then to the x-ray position, in which luggage seems to be. No smoking room around the airport ...

Sad airport. This place gets hundreds of thousands of tourists each year and lacks any kind of organization, mainly caused by incompetent airlines. Everyone tells you a different story, no one knows what is going on even when asked the most basic questions. The airport needs to step it up big time.

Airport should change their measurements regarding the on going pandemic.
The airport is small, we all know, but stricter rules might help.

And there is nothing wrong if the toilets are being replaced/refurbished.

Check-in etc. was not a problem, but as several times read the toilets are an impertinence. It's almost more hygienic to get in your pants. Dirt, urine, no toilet seat, no locks on the doors, no soap, ...

Hundreds of others described what is going on here and what it looks like.

Completely outdated airport, far too small for the number of flights, having to wait 45 minutes longer to take off due to the busy air traffic, organized chaos at the terminal itself

SHAME. A country's airport is the first thing a visitor sees. The toilets are NON-ADMISSIBLE, BAD, DIRTY. On our arrival there I have no words to describe the situation. The cleaner passes out and leaves. When leaving the same and worse. And more generally ... boxes, papers etc. in the corridors. I wonder with so many negative comments all over the world, HOW and when things haven't changed. Again DROP.

Very small, old airport. Not designed for the mass of tourists. Staff not so friendly. Improvisational Covid 19 station built. The only way to get to or from the plane is by bus. Arrival and departure right next to each other. Small waiting hall for many passengers.

Total chaos and unpleasant place. There is no worse airport.

Nice airport for cheap flights and located near the city centre! But bit over crowded and parking lot has overflow during busy periods.

Have never seen such a filthy and badly organized airport in my life. Refurbished grounds were just an impossibility to rejoice. Did not even deserve a star

There are very small airports on the back of people
But it is fairly clean so ok

Cramped, filthy and toilets absolutely disgusting. Staff were rude, miserable and food overpriced / lacking in variety.

Everything went quickly and easily despite the coronavirus

Very strict checks on QR code can just be taken out for a covid test

Hell is probably a more enjoyable place than this airport. Rude staff, cramped, loud, hardly any shops or places to eat and no where to sit. I'd suggest walking home, it'll be much more preferable

All negative reviews are correct. The minimum in a public place - clean and maintained services. Not to mention that in such a hot place in August the air conditioner you first meet duty free.

Not too crowded but quite rough and not too friendly personnel

No comparison to the German airports. All confused old and confusing.
Scoreboards are partly broken or switched off so you have to search correctly.

Furthermore, extremely long lines and everything tight and crowded

Arrival okay, departure catastrophic

When you arrive here, it takes about 20 minutes to get your bags. You can live with it wonderfully, but when you want to go home it makes you sick: After we have reached our counter and we finally had our plane tickets, the suitcases were weighed, labeled with the destination airport and then? Then it says: Please take your suitcase back and take the 2 switches that are fullest to give up your suitcase. The suitcase queue is completely unstructured. Especially fun with smaller children. We had a good 2 hours to check in and drop off our suitcases, which should be enough looser. But we only got our flight because it was 30 minutes late and we with our suitcases and Crushed children past the line. The airport is much too small and poorly managed for the tourist volume, but what else do you want to do as a package tourist?

This airport is mad house not enough seating for a start everyone sitting on the floor. I had a burger and was ill for 2 days.

A little obsolete, the toilets are not too tidy.
The airport looks like after demolition, I hope you fix it.

Being an island's airport it is obviously small. Aesthetically not beautiful, but has all the services of any airport. At the customs the staff is very careful to check both the luggage and the people, for greater safety of all. I have often traveled by air for the last two years, I have always had the same things in the bag, but only here they noticed a paper knife (of which I had also forgotten) that I had in my purse. I commend the staff for the attention through which they make everyone more confident.
The airport has a beautiful sea view, definitely romantic to look at before leaving the island at the end of the holidays.

You better eat nothing there, even if she gives it for free

Comically inefficient airport. Third world country indeed.

Small tiny... long queues. But the water behind the security check is very cheap. I don t like the airport

The badly maintained toilets, not many seats to seat in and my overall experience with this airport are not superior.

I do the HER-ATH, ATH-HER route every month and go to Athens to connect with European routes every summer. I experience the same conditions everytime.

In my opinion, Athens is much better, but yea, what can we do about it? :/

(This review might be updated sometime)

Extremely rude staff, extremely dirty airport. Fortunately we are only passing !!!

Small, dirty, messy. Out of six toilets at check-in, only one works and that's the dirtiest I've ever seen. Terrible airport. A star is too much.

Most terrible and poorly organized airport that I have experienced so far! Idiotic check-in procedure and total chaos and disinterest from the staff.

I can only agree. Pure chaos at this airport. You don't know where to check in. Toilets dirty. On our day, the display monitors went dead. It's no fun there.

The airport is really getting old and urgently needs a refurbishment. But the handling after the landing was absolutely exemplary. Exit, take the suitcase, get first useful information from the tourism staff and immediate transfer to the hotel. Everything without waiting. Note: This may only apply to the off-season we are currently in.

Very bad management at check-in and boarding. It took two queues.
Few seats, hall very little light.
Airport not designed to accommodate so many travelers.
Flight delay.

Quite dirty almost everywhere, especially in the toilets

Only good thing is the staff.

HOW DO U NOT HAVE CHARGING POINTS IN AN AIRPORT IN 2019. I don t even like writing reviews but this airport is a sheg.

Also the announcement system gave me ear cancer, I felt like I was in a PlayStation party being shouted at by some 12 year old.

Must be the worst airport experience I've had - and I've slept on the floor of Prague airport overnight under a bench. They had massive recent renovations - but only to the duty free section, which you now have no choice but to be funneled through like cattle. "Wow! Look at all the cigarettes!" Did I hear you say? Every flight seems to be delayed, with no information apart from the loudest and most distorted speaker system you will ever have the displeasure of hearing. I only have the time to write this long review because the airport does not have any transport organised to get the passengers, of our delayed flight back to Gatwick, to the plane from the gate. No charging stations in departures, dirty unsanitary toilets, boiling hot with no air conditioning, and full of miserable tourists waiting to catch their delayed flight home. Hey - at least Crete is nice.

Old, small, dirty airport. Sanitary facilities not usable !!! As in the Stone Age!

The suitcases came very fast and one has kept the overview

My wife and I and my Father-in-law (who lives in Cyprus and flew direct there to meet us) have just come back from Crete. We stayed in Rethymnon which is beautiful and we had a great week. However, we had to use Heraklion airport to come home. The experience my wife and I had defies description. As others on here have said, you have to check in with your carrier and then take your bags for X-Ray. OMG!!! The queue to get your bags X-Ray'd is ridiculous. There is no attempt to make the 100's of people queue and it's just a total free for all. There seems to be 3 X-Ray machines for all the check-in desks and it's just unreal. Took me about an hour to get this done. THEN you have to face the queue to get through security and this queue was even worse than the X-Ray queue with no attempt at control and people pushing to the front. Total nightmare! We only just made our flight with moments to spare. They HAVE to open the check-in desks at least 3 hours( not 2) before flight to give people a chance to get through this nightmare to make their flights. However, when staff were told my Father-in-law was 84 and with limited mobility they were great and got him through whole process in no time, and for this reason only I'm giving 3 stars.
I will never go to Crete again if I have to use this airport and that's a shame as it's a beautiful Island.

Friendly service but the building got a bit old. Much to small in peak season.

Bad toilet. No toilet paper. General state of the airport dismal. A quiet corner on the first floor, the Cooking Cafe.

What a bad airport, the worst I've ever seen! Bad bathrooms, disorganized, most rude staff.

My flight is three hours late and ok it's not the airport's fault, but they tell us that in a refreshment place they would have given us a drink and a sandwich for free ... but when we go to this place (as in the other refreshment points ) refuse to give us anything!

Sorry, probably the most run-down, unkempt and filthiest airport in the eastern Mediterranean.

Small enough airport for the volume of tourists arriving especially in the old summer which needs a lot of improvements

Worst airport I ve visited in my 300+flights. Bus got broken, no toilet paper in toilets nor soap, kept us waiting 15 minutes standing because are poorly organized. Worst memory after vacations, Crete - shame on you!

Very quite and was off the plane and into a fire car in 30 minutes.

Extended at the beginning of the 1970s and modernized in 2018, Heraklion International Airport is the primary airport on the island of Crete. Especially during the high season in the summer, this airport is very busy. Our flight to Heraklion was on time and the arrival was easy; the baggage claim and the charter busses were easy to find. We waited some 20 minutes until our bags arrived. However, the arrivals hall is relatively small and the restrooms were old, dirty and in need of renovation. At the end of our vacation, we realized that the airport is no longer designed and dimensioned for the handling of millions of passengers. The whole departure area was packed with tourists and seemed unorganized and chaotic. There were not enough seats in the hall, so people began sitting on their bags in the middle of the way. This also continued at the departure gates. Anyhow, the departure gate and the duty free area are relatively new and modern. Overall, the whole airport should be renovated and designed to be able to handle the high number of passengers.

We love this airport. All very friendly, especially at this time.

Location really very very room-level boarding no garbage bin emptied

Restaurant with fast services

Airport dilapidated and very dirty .. On the other hand no concern for our part for the registration and security control contrary to previous opinions (maybe because it was a flight on a Monday at 7am .. ).

Check-in and check-out counters are morally obsolete. Something broke and our flight was detained for 4 hours, because half of the landing was written out manually until the system was repaired.

On the way to the boarding gate after security control everything changes, there is a fairly modern airport with a lot of seating.

So far ok on arrival. BUT upon departure, this airport is pure Caos. This airport is in no way designed for this mass of passengers. Everything very confusing and confused. Toilets are too few and require a lot of maintenance. In the men's toilets only part of the toilets were functional, and you really stood in the 1 cm high water at the urinals. Been to a couple of airports and that was really the worst.

This is the worst airport I have ever experienced. Staff unhelpful and slow. Check in was chaotic and unclear of what to do. TUI reps patronising and no regency. Our flight was leaving at 22:20 and we didn't check in until 21:30. Endless checks that were understaffed. Toilets dirty with no soap or toilet roll. Departure lounges not clearly marked or enough seating.
Loved Crete but this airport was dire - would debate returning due to this utter hellhole.

Total disaster !!! Wc's broken ... no door locks available
Totally unfriendly and frustrated staff and the food is something of overpriced and only with poor to bad to rate .....
Are more beautiful airports ..... here everything is getting a bit old

Arrivals:
After landing with our A320 plane from Eurowings we were picked up by an old bus and driven to Swissport. After a 3 hour flight we wanted to go to the toilet, but it was out of the question. These were the most disgusting toilets I've ever seen. Toilets overflowed almost all, totally dirty, you couldn't lock it, all yellow-brown-black. The toilets have probably never been cleaned. The baggage claim went relatively quickly, I waited about 20 minutes, I found a reasonable time.

Departure:
After a week the nice vacation was over and now we had to go back to the airport (Swissport). The process was really miserable and on top of that the airport was much too small for the masses of people. We now wanted to check in and get our boarding passes plus hand in luggage. We queued (outside the front doors of the airport because the entire airport was full). After 20 minutes we came in and saw the full extent. After 60 minutes it was our turn to check in. We got boarding passes and we had to take our luggage with us again and line it up again. 30 minutes later we were able to check in our luggage. Then off to the gate. 45 minutes later, we were pushed / pulled by a quick security check-in. Then we arrived in the waiting hall. 2 snacks, completely overcrowded, ceiling height about 2 meters, the air like never before. Airplanes were as good as all delays of at least 30 minutes.

Conclusion: Crete always happy but please without the airport in Heraklion. Too crowded, too little staff, stuffy, unsanitary, unfriendly staff.

Dirty toilets old airport that does not fit in one of the most central airports in the country!

No! Dated airport, very poorly maintained, staff not serious and bad indications

Everything worked great, quick and friendly handling

The disorganization of the kingdom. The airport is far too small for the daily flow of tourists in the summer.

I arrived at the airport well in advance, about 2.5 hours before the flight. I look at the board and there was still no indication of my flight. For the sake of detail I decide to take a tour of the check-in counters and find mine. After 1 hour and 40 minutes in a row I can deliver the luggage. The staff at check in was extremely slow and a single row for a full flight is not enough.

After this row, it begins that for the controls. Here too, the chaos and another 30 minutes down the drain.

Beyond the security checkpoint there is a duty free and that too with the infernal tail, so I avoided losing qualcosa.Inoltre, the toilet in poor condition.

Most of the flights, thankfully not mine, reported at least an hour late just because of this slowness management and endless files that did not allow to close in time the preparations for takeoff.

Nice airport in Haraklion, very accessible.
Good staff.
The airport is reasonably clean,
A small airport makes it easy to get around (that is exactly what you want from every airport) this one has is.
Despite being small it takes flights from many places.
When you walk in the airport looks a bit run down,
The amount of facilities is big you can walk down one corridor and you will find one but, the many facilities are dirty and smell. The rest of the airport itself is clean.
Lots of shops with standered airport prices, all of the shops are mainly in one big place these places are dotted around the airport.
Lots of staff to help you out if needed and they are all friendly and are fluent in many languages.

Dirty, toilets broken, staff mostly unfriendly. Prices at the only kiosk at the gate for food and the coffee overpriced

Simply underground ... hardly noticeable air conditioning, dirty toilets, croaking speakers, missing flight on the display board etc. etc. etc.

The first impression is ... just after entering the building przyszywu brudne / o smell I will not forget / and unlit toilets. It was necessary to shine with flashlights on the phones (arrival was at night). One of the worse airports, even Greek ones.

Worst airport I've ever been to. Giant queues and confusion ...

The toilets are the absolute impertinence. You really wonder what the cleaning crew actually cleans.

Very small airport with few toilets and poor facilities. Nobody adheres to the Corona regulations and when boarding the area in front of the gates of the Munich Oktoberfest is the same - no distance!

Totally disaster place! A lot of peoples, air condition not working properly, delayed flytes. Toilets looks like from the smelling prison.

Very expensive cafe (double, triple the regular price). Olive oil at duty free 50% more expensive.

Really crappy airport. No seatings available, extremely overcrowded and unfriendly staff. Gates are not sized for the traffic so long lines are created which hinders people from moving. Even the shopping areas have ridiculous long lines if you want to buy anything.

Worst airport I've ever been and judging by everyone else's review there's too! Had an asthma attack while queuing for the flight home and really put a downer on a fantastic holiday.