- Nearly 1.5 million passenger movements at Heraklion Airport in September 2025
- Domestic arrivals rose 9.49 percent, international arrivals 3.81 percent
- Germany led with 193,385 arrivals, followed by the UK and France
- A total of 8,981 aircraft movements in one month
September was once the month Crete exhaled. Not anymore. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, Heraklion’s “Nikos Kazantzakis” Airport saw 717,346 arrivals and 756,207 departures in just thirty days. The tourism season has forgotten how to end.
Domestic traffic jumped 9.49 percent, with 81,756 arrivals against last year’s 74,670. Greeks themselves are swelling the ranks of visitors, joining the tide pouring in from abroad.
International traffic rose 3.81 percent, with 635,433 arrivals compared to 612,129 in September 2024. Germany remained the undisputed champion, sending 193,385 arrivals and reclaiming every spare sunbed. Britain followed with 103,586, while France shipped in another 56,206.
The country breakdown reads like a military roll call:
- Germany – 2,187 flights, 193,385 arrivals, 189,485 departures
- United Kingdom – 1,235 flights, 103,586 arrivals, 111,338 departures
- France – 723 flights, 56,206 arrivals, 59,691 departures
- Netherlands – 333 flights, 28,734 arrivals, 29,729 departures
- Poland – 455 flights, 41,349 arrivals, 43,696 departures
Other reinforcements:
- Czechia – 268 flights, about 43,000 passengers
- Romania – 317 flights, nearly 48,700 passengers
- Switzerland – 301 flights, over 45,000 passengers
- Italy – 241 flights, 17,125 arrivals, 21,685 departures
- Israel – 419 flights, about 57,400 passengers
Total aircraft movements: 8,981. In other words, the runway barely rested.
Crete stands defenseless, its “shoulder season” turned into high season 2.0. The tourist invasion rolls on, and the island once again plays host — willingly or not — to a relentless tide.
