Just before leaving for Davos, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a coming trip to Crete for the start of the Kastelli Airport project.
According to news from Radio Crete and ekriti.gr, Greece’s prime minister is expected to arrive in Crete on February 8 to announce the official start of work on the new Kasteli International Airport.
The new airport is slated to serve the growing air transportation requirements of Crete island by replacing the existing Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport in the capital of Heraklion, which has been operational since 1937.
According to early assessments, the new airport will be able to handle nine million local and international passengers a year, while its maximum handling capacity will be 15 million passengers a year. The new airport is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs during the construction phase and up to 500 jobs during operation. The project is predicted to cost in excess of €1.5 billion by completion.
The current Heraklion airport has only a single runway, a small terminal building, and an aging air and landside facilities, which cannot sufficiently serve the growing air traffic of Crete. With no room at all for expansion, the only real choice for decisionmakers is to relocate the main airport or to revamp Crete’s three or four largest airports/runways. The new airport is scheduled to open by 2025.
PM Mitsotakis is at the Davos economic forum joining most of the world’s leaders in discussing a way forward on everything from climate change to the Turkish-Greek friction of the so-called “Libya deal.”