Heraklion International Airport

The flights to and from the Nikos Kazantzakis airport of Iraklio, Crete, that had been suspended due to maintenance work, restarted on Saturday, the Civil Aviation Authority said.

The first flight took place at 3 p.m.

Greek travelers are turning to European destinations off the usual list but more affordable, as shown by the air booking data for the upcoming national holiday on October 28.

Aegean Airlines has increased its number of available seats by between 18% and 20% on the international and domestic networks.

The tourism season for Crete started officially on Wednesday with a flight from Bristol, UK, to the Nikos Kazantzakis Airport at Iraklio. According to the manager of Iraklio's airport, George Pliakas, that flight was the year's first scheduled flight from abroad, while the arrival of a large number of flights is expected on the two days of March 25 and 26, amounting to 30.

The new international airport of Heraklion in Crete will be up and running by the end of 2025. The first of the major projects that will upgrade the infrastructure of the island, corresponding to an investment of about 520 million euros, will replace the existing, overburdened "Nikos Kazantzakis" airport.

"We want to be leaders in tourism. We are in the championships, we do not want one of the best scores, we want the best score.

SKY express connects Heraklion with 11 popular domestic and European destinations creating bridges throughout Greece with destinations abroad. It upgrades the position of the historic city and of Crete as a whole as a key node of its network and actively contributes to the further development of the island nationally and internationally.

The European Union's lending arm, the European Investment Bank (EIB), signed a 180-million-euro ($199.69 million) loan deal with Greece to help it pay its share for a new airport on Crete, the country's biggest island.

Greece has been upgrading its airport facilities to handle an increasing number of tourists visiting the country, one of the world's top holiday destinations.

The passenger traffic of Greek airports in the first quarter of 2017 increased by 6,6% compared to the corresponding period of 2016, reaching a total of 6 million passengers.

Over 88,000 Greek passengers booked air flights online via the airtickets website for the 3 months in summer. According to the website’s data, the majority of the Greeks (69%) chose domestic destinations for their holidays, with Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Rhodes, Chania and Santorini being on the top of their list of preferences.

A kitten was smuggled past Greek airport security checks after an airline passenger hid the kitten in her handbag on a flight into the UK from Greece. Another traveler spotted the bag moving and informed Glasgow Airport authorities at the end of the 2,000-mile flight.