First time at Heraklion Airport?

Heraklion International Airport “Nikos Kazantzakis” (HER) is small enough to cross on foot and busy enough in August to catch people out. There is one terminal, one security area and one departure hall, so nothing about the layout is complicated. What surprises first-time travellers is the volume: more than ten million passengers came through in 2025, and most of them arrived in the same summer weeks and the same few hours of the morning. This is what the departure day looks like from the kerb to the boarding gate.

Before you leave for the airport

Check in online if your airline allows it. It saves the queue at the counter and, with several carriers flying out of HER, it is also cheaper than checking in at the airport. Save the boarding pass to your phone and take a screenshot: the terminal Wi-Fi is fine, but a full departure hall in July is not the moment to discover a weak signal.

Confirm three things while you are still at the hotel. The flight is still on time, which the live departure screens on this site show. Your bag is within the airline allowance, which is a separate matter from the security rules. And you know how long the road to the airport takes at that hour, because the coastal road is slow between 09:00 and 11:00 in high season. How much time to allow in total is set out in the guide to arriving early enough at HER.

Arriving at the terminal

Cars and taxis stop at the kerb directly in front of the building, and it is under a minute from there to the doors. Buses stop a couple of minutes away on the same forecourt. There is no separate departures level to find: HER has a single compact terminal, and the departures hall is straight ahead as you enter.

If someone is driving you and wants to come inside, the car park is two to three minutes from the entrance on foot and the first fifteen to twenty minutes are free. Details of the rates are in the airport parking guide.

Finding your check-in counter

Screens above the counters list flights by number and destination. Find your flight, note the counter number and join that queue. Most airlines open check-in about two hours before departure and close it between forty and sixty minutes before, though the exact times are printed on your booking and vary by carrier.

If you checked in online and travel with hand luggage only, you can skip this hall completely and go to security. If you have a bag to check, look for the bag drop position of your airline, which sits alongside the ordinary counters rather than in a separate area.

Weigh your bag before you arrive if you can. The scales at the counter are the moment when an overweight case turns into a payment, and the excess fee at the airport is always higher than paying for extra weight in advance. Airline allowances and what counts as hand luggage are covered in the baggage allowance guide.

Security

HER runs security lanes shared by every flight. There is no separate family lane, so families queue with everyone else. A fast lane does exist, but it is sold by the airline rather than at the airport door, and the details are in the fast track guide. In the peak morning wave this is the single slowest point of the departure, which is why the airlines ask you to be there early rather than because check-in itself takes long.

Prepare while you are still queuing. Liquids go in containers of 100 ml or less inside one transparent resealable bag, laptops and large electronics come out of your case, and belts and jackets go in the tray. Medicines and baby food are treated differently and can be carried in larger amounts. The full rules, including what happens to duty-free bought elsewhere, are in the baggage and liquids guide.

Passport control

Passport control applies only to flights leaving the Schengen area, for example to the United Kingdom. If you are flying to another Schengen country there is no passport check on departure, though the airline will still ask for photo identification at the gate. Travellers on non-Schengen routes should allow extra time, because the European Entry/Exit System records biometric data on first use and that adds minutes per passenger.

After security: gates, shops and food

The airside area is one connected space. The boarding gates are two to three minutes from the security exit, and the shops and food outlets sit between them, so no gate here is far from the shops. HER has eleven gates in total, and at several of them passengers are taken by bus to an aircraft parked away from the building instead of walking through an air bridge.

One thing catches smokers out every summer: there is nowhere to smoke once you pass security, and leaving the airside area to smoke means clearing the whole queue again. What is open airside, and from what time, is described in the airport food guide and the duty-free guide.

At the gate

Gates are shown on the departure screens and are usually announced thirty to forty minutes before departure. Boarding starts well before the time on your ticket, and the gate normally closes twenty minutes before departure. That closing time is firm: the aircraft door is the airline's deadline, not yours, and arriving at the gate five minutes late in the middle of a busy morning means watching the flight leave without you.

Keep the boarding pass and passport in the same pocket for the whole journey. You will be asked for both at the gate even on a domestic flight, and searching through a bag at the gate holds up everyone behind you.

What first-time travellers get wrong at HER

• Looking for Terminal 1. There is only one terminal here, so any instruction mentioning a terminal number belongs to a different airport.
• Counting on a family lane at security. HER does not operate one, so families queue with everyone else and should allow for it.
• Arriving at the airport at the same time as three charter flights. The morning wave between 06:00 and 09:00 fills the hall; the same airport in the early afternoon is quiet.
• Buying water before security. It will be taken off you at the checkpoint. Buy it airside, or bring an empty bottle.
• Assuming the gate will wait. Boarding closes twenty minutes before departure regardless of how many passengers are still shopping.

Coming back through the same airport

Arrivals work in the opposite order and in the same building: passengers clear passport control where it applies, collect bags from the reclaim belts and continue into the public hall where drivers wait. What that looks like on the day, including how long bags take and what to do if one does not appear, is set out in the Heraklion Airport arrivals guide.

Frequently asked questions

How does check-in work at Heraklion Airport?
Screens above the counters list flights by number; find yours, note the counter and queue there. Most airlines open check-in about two hours before departure and close it forty to sixty minutes before. With online check-in and hand luggage only you can go straight to security.

How many terminals does Heraklion Airport have?
HER has one terminal. Every airline and every flight, domestic and international, uses the same building, so there is no transfer between terminals.

How long does security take at Heraklion Airport?
There are eight lanes shared by all flights. Outside the summer morning peak the queue moves quickly; between 06:00 and 09:00 in July and August it is the slowest part of the departure, which is why airlines ask for an early arrival.

Is there passport control when leaving Heraklion?
Only for flights leaving the Schengen area, such as those to the United Kingdom. Flights to other Schengen countries have no departure passport check, though photo identification is still required at the gate.

How early do check-in counters open at Heraklion Airport?
Typically about two hours before departure, though it varies by airline and by season. The time on your booking confirmation is the one that counts.

When does the gate close at Heraklion Airport?
Normally twenty minutes before the scheduled departure time. Gates are two to three minutes from security, but that margin disappears if you are still shopping when boarding is called.