Chania International Airport "Daskalogiannis" is an international airport located near

Souda Bay Souda Bay is a bay and natural harbour near the town of Souda on the northwest coast of the Greece, Greek island of Crete. The bay is about 15 km long and only two to four km wide, and a deep natural harbour. It is formed between the Akr ...

on the Akrotiri peninsula of the Greek island of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

, serving the city of

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

, away. It is a gateway to western Crete for an increasing number of tourists. The airport is named after

Daskalogiannis Ioannis Vlachos (), better known as Daskalogiannis (; 1722/30 – 17 June 1771) was a wealthy shipbuilder and shipowner who led a Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule in the 18th century.Detorakis, Turkish rule in Crete, p. 357 Life and career ...

, a Cretan rebel against Ottoman rule in the 18th century and is a joint civil–military airport. It is the sixth busiest airport in Greece.

History

The focus on civil aviation for the west of Crete has not always been on the current location. It was the airport of Maleme that served civil flights up to 1959, and dating back to the end of

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Maleme (Military) Airport was constructed by the British Military, shortly before the Second World War. When the war was over, the facility was used as the main public airport of Chania. In 1959, this activity was transferred to the military airport of Souda. 1967 saw the construction of the first passenger terminal and parking space for two aircraft. In 1974, the airport also began to serve international flights. Because of insufficient capacity, there was the need for a new terminal building. Eventually, in 1996, the new terminal was ready, measuring a surface area of , with 6 aircraft stands in front. It has a design capacity of 1.35 million passengers per year. In 2000, it was officially named ''Ioannis Daskalogiannis''. The airport is also intensively used as a military airfield by the

Hellenic Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 8 November , equipment = , equipment_label ...

. In December 2015 the privatisation of Chania International Airport and 13 other regional airports of Greece was finalised with the signing of the agreement between the

Fraport AG Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide,HRADF The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund S.A. (HRADF; el, Ταμείο Αξιοποίησης Ιδιωτικής Περιουσίας του Δημοσίου, ''Tameio Axiopoiisis Idiotikis Periousias tou Dimosiou'') or TAIPED ( el, ΤΑΙΠ ...

, Stergios Pitsiorlas, told Reuters. According to the agreement, the joint venture will operate the 14 airports (including Chania International Airport) for 40 years as of 11 April 2017. In June 2018 Fraport Greece completed the new aircraft layouts, which are now using push back to double the parking space. The passenger safety area has been expanded, the number of hand baggage scanners from 5 to 8, the duty-free store space trebled from 400 sq.m. to 1,200 sq. meters, the VIP space moved to increase the number of boarding gates from 14 to 16 and the dividing walls in the departure halls were removed in order to create a space of 3,000 sq. meters. A new sewage pumping station was built and the network (about 3.5 km) was connected to the municipal network, electromechanical installations (new MCCs, wiring, lighting, electrical panels, etc.) were optimized, the apron lighting was upgraded, the WCs were renovated to increase the number of toilets in the non-Schengen area, and the escalator was moved to use the available space better. On June 10, 2018,

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used ...

carrying U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

stopped for refueling in Chania during Trump's flight from the G7 meeting in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

to the meeting in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

with the leader of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

Fraport Greece's investment plan

On 22 March 2017, Fraport Greece presented its master plan for the 14 Greek regional airports, including Chania International Airport. Immediate actions that will be implemented at the airports as soon as Fraport Greece takes over operations, before the summer of 2019: * General clean-up * Improving lighting, marking of airside areas * Upgrading sanitary facilities * Enhancing services and offering a new free Internet connection (WiFi) * Implementing works to improve fire safety in all the areas of the airports * Rearranging the terminal's internal utilization * Rearranging the departure gate lounge * Expanding the security control area * HBS (Hold Baggage Screening Systems) inline screening * Expanding the waste water treatment plant or connection to municipal service * Reorganizing the apron area * Refurbishing the airside pavement * 25 percent increase in the number of departure gates (from 8 to 10) * Doubling the number of security-check lanes (from 4 to 8)

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Chania Airport:

Traffic figures

The data are from Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) until 2016, and from 2017 and later from the official website of the airport.

Traffic statistics by country (2021)

https://www.https://www.chq-airport.gr/uploads/sys_nodelng/2/2873/Traffic%20by%20Country_2021_CHQ.pdf

Transportation to and from the airport

The airport can be easily reached by car, bus or taxi via the main road network. The city of Chania is about 22 minutes' drive away. in 2022 the bus fare is €3.20 and the supposed flat-rate taxi fare is €23.

References

External links

*http://www.ypa.gr/en/our-airports/kratikos-aerolimenas-xaniwn-i-daskalogiannhs-kaxnd/
HCAA website

Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority
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