Greece’s second busiest airport Heraklion International has got brand new facilities, following a €13 million investment by Hellenic Duty Free Shops. The project included a full refurbishment to an already existing space of 8,000 square meters in the departure area increasing the number of departure gates to 11, nine on the ground floor and two on the first floor.
The new facilities opened officially to the public last Monday and the opening ceremony was attended by the minister of transport, local MPs and regional governor and local officials.
Heraklion airport has featured regularly in the top 10 worst airports in Europe as it exceeded its capacity by several hundreds of thousand of passengers
Hellenic Duty Free Shops will be investing a total of 55 million euros to upgrade Greek airports. The sum includes the company’s refurbishment project at Athens International Airport last year, the revamp of the Duty Free area at Heraklion airport and the planned revamps at the 14 Greek regional airports managed by Fraport Greece.
“Crete now has an airport for which we are no longer ashamed of. A modern airport, which will operate for several years until the Kastelli airport project is completed,” transport minister Spirtzis said during the opening ceremony of the airport, while outside the airport several dozen residents from villages around Kastelli, the area where the new airport is going to be built, held a protest against the new airport development, demanding higher prices for the compulsory purchase of land in the area.
