Crete’s tourist season is holding into autumn. Heraklion Airport still handles heavy traffic, and this year’s timetable runs well past the usual summer peak.
About 780,000 passengers used the airport in the first two weeks of September. Foreign arrivals rose 3.5% on the same stretch last year. Officials expect traffic to stay strong through late September and October, with more than 150 aircraft arriving each day.
November is the next test. Planners expect about 100 flights a day until mid-month, which would push the busy period weeks beyond summer.
Germany and the United Kingdom remain the main markets. France, Poland, the Netherlands, Israel and Romania also send large numbers.
Winter does not cut Crete off. International links stay on the winter schedule. Transavia France plans a direct Heraklion–Paris service from October and intends to keep it year-round.
Nikos Chalkiadakis, president of the Heraklion Hotel Association, tells Tornos News the French route matters because it helps stretch the season. He says Heraklion already runs at least five international flights a day in winter, and new links make that access more stable.
Hotels and other businesses now have to match a longer calendar if Crete wants more than a short summer.
Source: Tornos News / Heraklion Hotel Association comments, as reported in the supplied text.
