Chania International Airport, "Daskalogiannis" (IATA: CHQ, ICAO: LGSA) is an international airport located near Souda Bay on the Akrotiri Peninsula of the Greek island of Crete, serving the city of Chania, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) away. Moreover, it is a gateway to western Crete for an increasing amount of tourists. The airport is named after Daskalogiannis, a Cretan rebel against Ottoman rule in the 18th century and is a joint civil-military airport. It is the fifth busiest airport in Greece and 8th in Balkan peninsula in terms of passengers. From 2010 to 2016 has a great increase about 100% in passengers arrivals. The airport is connected with many countries (about 30) from Europe and Asia especially in summer season and with flights connections in Greece and Cyprus whole year. The last season the arrivals of passengers were about 3.000.000.
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History
The focus on civil aviation for the west of Crete has not always been on the current location. It was the airport of Maleme that served civil flights up to 1959, and dating back to the end of Second World War.
Maleme (Military) Airport was constructed by the British Military, shortly before the Second World War. When the war was over, the facility was used as the main public airport of Chania.
In 1959, this activity was transferred to the military airport of Souda. 1967 saw the construction of the first passenger terminal and parking space for two aircraft. In 1974, the airport also began to serve international flights. Because of insufficient capacity, there was the need for a new terminal building. Eventually, in 1996, the new terminal was ready, measuring a surface area of 14,650 square metres (157,700 sq ft), with 6 aircraft stands in front. It has a design capacity of 1.35 million passengers per year. In 2000, it was officially named Ioannis Daskalogiannis.
The airport is also intensively used by the Hellenic Air Force.
In December 2015 the privatisation of Chania International Airport and 13 other regional airports of Greece was finalised with the signing of the agreement between the Fraport AG/Copelouzos Group joint venture and the state privatisation fund. "We signed the deal today," the head of Greece's privatisation agency HRADF, Stergios Pitsiorlas, told Reuters. According to the agreement, the joint venture will operate the 14 airports (including Chania International Airport) for 40 years as of 11 April 2017.
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Future of the Airport - Fraport Greece's investment plan
On 22 March 2017, the Fraport-Greece presented its master plan for the 14 regional airports including the International Airport of Chania.
Immediate actions that will be implemented at the airports as soon as Fraport Greece takes over operations before the launch of the summer season include :
- General clean-up
- Improving lighting, marking of airside areas.
- Upgrading sanitary facilities
- Enhancing services and offering new free Internet connection (WiFi)
- Implementing works to improve fire safety in all the areas of the airports
The following summarizes the enhancement changes that will be started in Ocrober 2017 and will be implemented for Chania International Airport under Fraport Greece's investment plan until 2021 :
- Rearranging the terminal's internal utilization
- Rearranging the departure gate lounge
- Expanding the security control area
- HBS (Hold Baggage Screening Systems) inline screening
- Expanding the waste water treatment plant or connection to municipal service
- Reorganizing the apron area
- Refurbishing the airside pavement
- 25 percent increase in the number of departure gates (from 8 to 10)
- Doubling the number of security-check lanes (from 4 to 8)
Airlines and destinations
Traffic figures
The data token from Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) until 2016 and from 2017 and later from the official website of the airport.
*2017 figures are for January-July only
Transportation
The airport can be easily reached by car via the main road network. The city of Chania is about 20 minutes drive away. Other than by car, the facility is linked by airport buses to the city of Chania, from where transfer to other buses is possible. Passengers can also take a taxi to any destination across the island.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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