While several major infrastructure projects have been announced for Crete and are assumed to be under way, with intermittent updates being issued about their progress through the various stages of planning, a certain cynicism prevails among the general public, based on past experience, as to when and indeed if they will finally be completed. It is therefore encouraging to receive information which confirms that things are actually happening, albeit out of most people’s sight.

The Kastelli-Heraklion airport
Construction of the major project of the new Heraklion airport at Kastelli is well under way, as is demonstrated in a new video issued by the contractors which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvSjg4IairA. Drone shots of the areas under construction include the main terminal, the apron, the runway and taxiways, and the road connections to the northern and southern axis highways.

The new airport is one of the biggest infrastructure works in Crete and in Greece, with a budget of €1.5 billion equalling that for the Chania-Heraklion section of the new VOAK, which is currently in the process of tendering. Completion was originally scheduled for 2025, but as a result of delays caused by the Covid pandemic this has been put back to 2027-28.

By the time it is completed, construction of the project will have provided a total of 2,000 jobs, while many more permanent jobs will be created during the airport’s period of operation and with the new commercial activities which will develop around it. In a recent statement, the Air Transport Action Group estimated that Kastelli Airport will create around 7,000 to 7,500 jobs immediately related to the airport (with the airport’s operating company and with airlines and handling companies, service providers, etc.)

Last December, the concession agreement was amended to increase the airport’s terminal area by 32 per cent, from the 68,000 sq m provided for in the original agreement to 91,000 sq m. It will have 10 passenger boarding bridges, 19 boarding gates and an initial capacity of 11 million passengers per year.
(Sources: Ypodomes.com, Wikipedia)

Seaplane services planned
Several announcements have been made over the past couple of years signalling private companies’ intentions to establish a network of seaplane routes around the Greek islands, including Crete. Hitherto there has been little concrete evidence of progress, no doubt partly due to the complications involved in receiving planning approval and operating permits for what is an almost entirely new form of activity. However, last month Hellenic Seaplanes, one of the two companies with plans to operate seaplane routes in Greece, announced that it had taken delivery of its first aircraft, an amphibious Cessna Caravan C208. The company described it as a milestone event which would enable it to start seaplane flights within 2023.

The second company aiming to run seaplane services in Greece, Grecian Air Seaplanes, is in the process of acquiring an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) for seaplane flights and has included Crete among the destinations it will serve when the network is created. It plans to connect the island with the Cyclades, the Dodecanese and parts of the Peloponnisos.

A seaplane port at Kissamos
Approval has been given for the building of the first seaplane port in Western Crete, which will be at Kissamos. According to a press release, “following an application and Technical Dossier submitted by the Port Authority of the Nomos of Chania to the Navy General Staff (GEN), the responsible section … having carried out the required inspections in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority (APA) and the Ministry of Shipping and Island Policy, has approved the Seaplane Port at Kissamos, Chania.

“The Port Authority of Chania, which is the management body for the Port of Kissamos, took the highly important initiative to proceed with the approval of a Seaplane Port which will serve the transport needs of tourists and residents in the wider area of Chania. The Port Authority of Chania has chosen the company Greek Water Airports as the contractor for the implementation of the project.

“Greek Water Airports is the leading company active in the field of seaplane ports, having completed approvals for the first seaplane port in Greece at Kanistro Beach, Kassandra in Halkidiki as well as at Porto Cheli at Ermioni, and at Lavrio.”

Every seaplane port approval provides legal permission for up to six pairs of flights (takeoffs and landings) per seaplane company daily. In addition permission is given for Hospital, Firefighting, Search and Rescue flights, and General Aviation (which includes personal and business aviation but not commercial air transport). The flights will take place from and to licensed water airports, and terrestrial airports with the use of amphibious aircraft.

Further plans for Crete
The approval of the seaplane port at Kissamos constitutes one more step in the creation of an extensive network of water airports in Crete. A permit has already been issued for a seaplane port at Rethymnon, while one for Ierapetra is at an advanced stage. Others to follow are Hersonissos, Heraklion, Agia Galini, Sitia, Malevizi, and Kokkinos Pyrgos near Phaestos, while smaller-scale facilities are envisaged at Plakias and a series of seaside hotels on the island. When this network has been completed, Crete will be one of the major markets for seaplane activity in Greece.

Referring to the approval of the Kissamos water airport, the head of the Chania Port Authority Dimitrios Virirakis said: “I am very happy that the Chania Port Authority, through a methodical approach and with the help of the government and the company Greek Water Airports, has a few days ago received approval for the Seaplane Port at the port of Kavonisi in Kissamos, the first of its kind in Crete… In two years, despite the unimaginable difficulties we encountered (e.g. the issue of forestry designations), we have managed achieve a presence in the first plan for a seaplane network in Greece, when that is operational. This means that a new, innovative entry point will be created in Western Crete for tourism, for travel and for transport and it will contribute to the economic development of Chania and of Crete.”

Also referring to the approval, the CEO of Greek Water airports Anastasios Govas said “We believe that the approval of the water airport at the port of Kissamos in Chania will be a pilot for the approval of other water airports and seaplane ports in Crete and that shortly there will be a sufficient network for the viable operation of seaplanes. Tourist movements by seaplane will become flexible, safe and speedy. The ‘market’ will expand, since the tourists will be able to take seaplane tours both to other parts of Crete and to nearby islands, thus increasing the tourist destinations they can visit, a fact which will make their holidays even more special.”
(Haniotika Nea, 08/09/23)

Seaplane travel in Greece
Travel by seaplane in Greece is not entirely new. In the 1930s Imperial Airways used Mirabello Bay off Agios Nikolaos as a staging post for flying boats running the route from the UK to India. A steamer served as a hotel for passengers during overnight stops. The service was short-lived and a seaplane on a flight from Egypt crashed in Mirabello Bay in 1936, killing two passengers. More recently Air Sea Lines, based in Corfu, ran flights to Brindisi in Italy and to four other Greek islands between 2004 and 2009, when it stopped because of financial troubles.

It has long been the ambition of governments and local authorities to establish seaplane services in a country which because of its island nature is ideally suited for such a form of travel. The obstacles have been largely procedural, but these are now being overcome. In January of this year the Regional Governor of the South Aegean Giorgos Hatzimarkos told Kathimerini: “When we decided to undertake the licensing process for 28 waterways on 26 islands of the South Aegean, we could not imagine how difficult it would be. We were faced with presidential decrees, according to which no permanent construction of any kind is allowed in a port. In other cases, royal decrees forbid the creation of a gazebo on the pier of a watercourse in the Cyclades. In some cases the legislation also had to be changed.” However, he added, “the process has been simplified. Within 2023 we will submit the files to secure an establishment license for more than 30 waterways, including three for which the procedures have been advanced by the municipalities, and a compact network will be created with over 700 possible routes.”