Chania International Airport

Chania International Airport "Daskalogiannis" (IATA: CHQ, ICAO: LGSA) is an international airport located near Souda Bay on the Akrotiri peninsula of the Greek island of Crete, serving the city of Chania, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) away. It is a gateway to western Crete for an increasing number of tourists. The airport is named after Daskalogiannis, 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.

Chania International Airport
"Daskalogiannis"

Κρατικός Αερολιμένας Χανίων, "Δασκαλογιάννης"
Summary
Airport typePublic/military
OwnerHellenic Civil Aviation Authority
OperatorFraport Greece
ServesChania, Crete
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL149 m / 490 ft
Coordinates35°31′54″N 024°08′59″E
Websitechq-airport.gr
Map
CHQ is located in Greece
CHQ
CHQ
Location in Greece
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
11/29 3,347 10,982 Asphalt
Statistics (2022)
Passengers3,290,802
Passenger traffic changeIncrease 83.3%
Aircraft movements23,273
Aircraft movements changeIncrease 44.0%
Source: Fraport-Greece[1]
Chania International airport terminal building and ground-equipment in 2019.
Credit: Marius Vassnes

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.

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 14,650 square metres (157,700 sq ft), 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.[2][3]

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/Copelouzos Group joint venture and the state privatisation fund.[4] "We signed the deal today," the head of Greece's privatisation agency HRADF, Stergios Pitsiorlas, told Reuters.[5] 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[6] 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 carrying U.S. President Donald Trump stopped for refueling in Chania during Trump's flight from the G7 meeting in Quebec to the meeting in Singapore with the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un.[7]

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.[8]

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:

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Athens, Thessaloniki (begins 29 October 2023)[9]
Seasonal: Tel Aviv[10]
Air Serbia Seasonal: Belgrade[11]
Animawings Seasonal: Bucharest–Otopeni[12]
Austrian Airlines Seasonal: Vienna
British Airways Seasonal: London–Heathrow
Brussels Airlines Seasonal: Brussels
Condor Seasonal: Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Leipzig/Halle,[13] Munich
Discover Airlines Seasonal: Frankfurt, Munich
easyJet Seasonal: Berlin, Bristol,[14] Glasgow,[15] London–Gatwick, London–Luton, Lyon, Manchester, Milan–Malpensa, Nice
Edelweiss Air Seasonal: Zurich
Eurowings Seasonal: Düsseldorf, Graz,[16] Hamburg,[17] Stuttgart
Finnair Seasonal: Helsinki
Icelandair Seasonal: Reykjavik–Keflavík[18]
Israir Airlines Seasonal: Tel Aviv[19]
Jet2.com Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol,[20] Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne (begins 2 May 2024)[21]
Lufthansa Seasonal: Frankfurt
Luxair Seasonal: Luxembourg[22]
Marabu[23] Seasonal: Hamburg, Munich
Norwegian Air Shuttle Seasonal: Bergen, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda
Olympic Air Thessaloniki (ends 28 October 2023)[9]
Ryanair Paphos, Thessaloniki
Seasonal: Athens,[24] Bari, Bergamo, Berlin, Bologna, Bremen, Bucharest–Otopeni, Budapest, Charleroi, Dublin, East Midlands, Gdańsk, Hahn, Kraków, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Malta, Manchester, Marseille, Memmingen, Naples, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nuremberg,[25] Pisa,[26] Poznań, Rome–Fiumicino, Sofia, Stockholm–Arlanda, Tel Aviv, Treviso, Vienna, Warsaw–Modlin, Weeze, Wrocław
Scandinavian Airlines Seasonal: Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda
Seasonal charter: Aalborg,[27] Bergen, Bodø, Haugesund, Kristiansand, Gothenburg, Stavanger, Tromsø, Trondheim
Sky Express Athens
Smartwings Seasonal: Prague
Seasonal charter: Debrecen[28]
Sunclass AirlinesSeasonal charter: Billund, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Malmö, Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm–Arlanda, Trondheim
TransaviaSeasonal: Amsterdam, Paris–Orly
TUI AirwaysSeasonal: Birmingham, London–Gatwick, Manchester
TUI fly BelgiumSeasonal: Brussels, Ostend/Bruges
TUI fly Netherlands[29] Seasonal: Amsterdam
TUI fly NordicSeasonal charter: Copenhagen, Gothenburg,[30] Norrköping,[31] Oslo,[32] Stockholm–Arlanda
Tus Airways Seasonal: Larnaca[33]
Wizz Air Seasonal: Budapest, Cluj-Napoca, Vienna, Warsaw–Chopin

Traffic figures
Annual passenger traffic at CHQ airport. See Wikidata query.

The data are from Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)[34] until 2016, and from 2017 and later from the official website of the airport.[35]

Year Passengers
Domestic International Total
1994 204,360 621,986 826,346
1995 Increase220,910 Increase669,516 Increase890,426
1996 Increase244,146 Decrease587,106 Decrease831,252
1997 Increase301,471 Increase622,689 Increase924,160
1998 Decrease292,504 Increase676,687 Increase969,191
1999 Increase414,429 Increase816,045 Increase1,230,474
2000 Increase515,093 Increase901,710 Increase1,416,803
2001 Decrease395,864 Increase1,033,118 Increase1,428,982
2002 Decrease331,521 Increase1,053,058 Decrease1,384,579
2003 Increase413,541 Increase1,066,112 Increase1,479,653
2004 Decrease382,224 Decrease1,064,153 Decrease1,446,377
2005 Increase401,141 Increase1,111,628 Increase1,512,769
2006 Increase437,403 Increase1,323,556 Increase1,760,959
2007 Increase514,318 Increase1,368,516 Increase1,882,834
2008 Increase522,658 Decrease1,343,923 Decrease1,866,581
2009 Increase575,687 Decrease1,219,779 Decrease1,795,466
2010 Decrease468,279 Decrease1,186,585 Decrease1,654,864
2011 Decrease449,211 Increase1,325,497 Increase1,774,708
2012 Decrease397,661 Increase1,435,313 Increase1,832,974
2013 Decrease379,280 Increase1,699,577 Increase2,078,857
2014 Increase578,286 Increase1,869,280 Increase2,447,566
2015 Increase827,190 Increase1,875,093 Increase2,702,283
2016 Increase881,031 Increase2,085,666 Increase2,966,697
2017 Decrease831,324 Increase2,111,085 Increase3,042,409
2018 Decrease646,723 Increase2,361,964 Decrease3,008,687
2019 Increase672,945 Decrease2,310,597 Decrease2,983,542
2020 Decrease295.385 Decrease408.097 Decrease703.482
2021 Increase454,298 Increase1,340,938 Increase1,795,236
2022 Increase678,845 Increase2,611,957 Increase3,290,802
2023(Sep) Increase624,670 Increase2,522,302 Increase3,146,972

Traffic statistics by country (2022)
Traffic by country at Chania International Airport – 2022
Place Country Total pax
1 Greece Greece 678,845
2 United Kingdom United Kingdom 476,169
3 Denmark Denmark 331,999
4 Germany Germany 295,812
5 Poland Poland 232,053
6 Sweden Sweden 224,711
7 Norway Norway 214,552
8 Finland Finland 193,588
9 Italy Italy 109,018
10 France France 72,273
11 Belgium Belgium 71,682
12 Netherlands Netherlands 51,139
13 Cyprus Cyprus 50,860
14 Austria Austria 49,613
15 Hungary Hungary 46,829

[36]

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.

See also

References
  1. "CHANIA AIRPORT "IOANNIS DASKALOGIANNIS" - 2022 vs 2021" (PDF).
  2. "History of Maleme - Maleme Airfield - German War Cemetery at Maleme". explorecrete.com. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  3. "Greek Airports Guide". Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  4. "Greece signs privatization of 14 regional airports with Germany's Fraport - TornosNews.gr". Tornosnews.gr. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  5. "Refile-Update 1-Greece signs major privatisation deal with Germany's Fraport". Reuters. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  6. "Το HANIA.news στο Αεροδρόμιο Χανίων – Εικόνες & βίντεο από τα έργα και τις αλλαγές". 23 April 2018.
  7. Herman, Steve (9 June 2018). "Trump Admits 'Unknown Territory' Awaits in Kim Summit". VOA. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  8. "Fraport Greece’s Development Plan for the New Era at the Greek Regional Airports", fraport-greece.com
  9. "Aegean Airlines / Olympic Air NW23 Domestic Operation Changes". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  10. "AEGEAN to Launch Flights to Tel Aviv from Ioannina, Chania and Kalamata". 27 January 2023.
  11. "Air Serbia to launch new destinations in Greece". 13 December 2022.
  12. "Animawings: zboruri din București spre nouă destinații din Grecia în 2023". 26 October 2022.
  13. "Condor schedule - summer 2023" (PDF).
  14. "EASYJET NS23 NETWORK ADDITIONS SUMMARY – 30JAN23". Aeroroutes. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  15. @seanm1997 (13 April 2022). "NEW ROUTE. easyJet - Glasgow to Chania. Summer seasonal flights start 29 June 2022" (Tweet). Retrieved 7 May 2022 – via Twitter.
  16. "Ab Sommerflugplan: Neue Direktflüge: Eurowings verbindet Graz mit Hamburg und Berlin | Kleine Zeitung". 6 December 2022.
  17. https://www.eurowings.com/en/discover/destinations/new-routes.html
  18. "Icelandair Adds Scheduled Chania Service in NS23".
  19. https://www.israirairlines.com
  20. "Jet2.com NS23 Network Additions – 04SEP22". AeroRoutes.
  21. https://www.jet2.com/en/next-summer#flights
  22. "Luxair optimises its Winter flight schedule and introduces two additional destinations for next Summer season". 14 October 2022.
  23. "Marabu Airlines Outlines NS23 Network".
  24. "H Ryanair επαναφέρει το Αθήνα-Χανιά". 18 November 2022.
  25. "Ryanair Delivers Tourism Recovery at Nuremberg Airport – Ryanair's Corporate Website". 8 December 2021.
  26. "Ryanair Opens Three New Bases in Greece for Summer '21 – Ryanair's Corporate Website". 24 March 2021.
  27. "Flight". apollorejser.dk.
  28. "Smartwings Hungary NS23 Charter Network Additions".
  29. "Flight Destinations". tui.nl.
  30. "Only Flight". tui.se.
  31. Liu, Jim (3 January 2020). "TUIfly Nordic outlines Norrkoping network in S20". routesonline.com.
  32. "Only Flight". tui.no.
  33. "Η TUS Airways σας ταξιδεύει σε 5 ελληνικούς προορισμούς αυτό το καλοκαίρι". 3 February 2023.
  34. "CHANIA AIRPORT "I. DASKALOGIANNIS", ypa.gr
  35. "CHANIA AIRPORT (CHQ) - 2017 vs 2016", chq-airport.gr
  36. https://www.chq-airport.gr/uploads/sys_nodelng/2/2873/Traffic%20by%20Country_2022_CHQ.pdf

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