Once again, the Government of Greece ordered the construction of a new large airport on the island of Crete: tourists come in summer in huge numbers, and the main airport of the island in Iraklion “Nikos Kazantzakis” is literally bursting at the seams. These plans appear periodically: the last time, it was a few years ago in anticipation of the crisis.

The new one will appear near the town of Kastelli, in the southeast of the city of Heraklion. Construction is scheduled to be completed no earlier than mid-2019. There is now only a small military airport in Kastelli, and tourists can see an active reconstruction of the route between Iraklion and Kastelli.       

A pre-order for the consruction of the new airport was given to the Greek-Indian consortium Terna-GMR. It will also lease 54% of the new area, and the rest will belong to the state. In May Greek Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Christos Spirtzis signed the relevant decree in Athens.

«More than 500 permanent jobs will appear”, he said.

This is an investment of at least 850 million Euros. According to Spirtzis, the said order has yet to be approved by the Greek parliament after careful checking of the State Audit Chamber and other technical control bodies.

“Nikos Kazantzakis” can no longer cope with the influx of tourists. In 2016 it served more than 4 million people, according to official figures, and this is four time over its capacity. The center of foreign tourism reported that Greece expects this year about 30 million tourists: almost 3 million more than past year.

The country is especially popular among travelers from Germany. For a long time, they constitute the majority of foreign visitors to Greece. In 2017, their number should grow from two to three million. Now Greek resorts are becoming more popular among the French, British, Russians and Austrians.

August 2017