New plans for upgrading the airport at Chania on Crete are being made public at last. The Chania airport in western Crete is one of two operational charter flight airports at the moment. The other is at Heraklion, on the central northern coast and is the larger of the two, although there are plans to upgrade the airport at Sitia in eastern Crete to provide a third airport in the future.

The airport at Chania has been struggling for some time to cope with the higher number of flights coming to the country as the popularity of this Greek island continues to increase. The new plans will more than double the official capacity of the airport from 1,000 passengers per hour to 2,100 passengers per hour. Elements of the improvement plans include increasing the size of the terminal buildings by over 15,000 square metres, building a new control tower and other refurbishment work to the existing infrastructure, including the current terminal building.

At the moment the airport aprons have room for only 8 aircraft, but this is scheduled to increase by a further 4 or 6 aircraft. The work will be detailed next year when tenders for the contract will be invited. At the moment around 2.5 million passengers pass through Chania airport every year, while Heraklion airport already caters for twice that volume and has space for 15 large aircraft. Additional development is also planned for Heraklion, where improvements to the terminal building, originally constructed in 1971, have already been identified. The location of the airport, just 3 miles from the city of Heraklion, makes it a favoured arrival and departure point, with easy transfer routes to most resort locations on Crete.