Heraklion Airport Arrivals

Heraklion International Airport “Nikos Kazantzakis” (HER) handled 10,033,151 passengers in 2025, and the great majority of them landed between May and October. The arrivals screens at the top of this page list every inbound flight in the current window. Below them is the part no timetable tells you: how long it actually takes to get out, when passport control applies, where your bags appear, and how to reach the city or your resort once you are through the doors. All times are Crete local time (EET in winter, EEST in summer).

Heraklion arrivals today

The screens above cover a window that starts three hours behind the current time and runs six hours ahead, and they refresh about once a minute. That is enough for today, and it is the reason tomorrow’s inbound flights are not there: the window simply does not reach that far. For a flight landing tomorrow, check the airline app or your tour operator’s confirmation instead.

Watch the estimated time rather than the scheduled one. When a carrier files a revised time, the estimate is what moves. See the flight information page for the mechanics of the table: what each status means, why a ticket number sometimes returns nothing, and how codeshare flights are handled.

Is there a Terminal 1 at Heraklion Airport?

No. HER has one passenger terminal, so a booking that says “Terminal 1” is using a placeholder, not describing the airport. Flights from Athens, Thessaloniki and the other Greek airports use the same building as flights from London, Warsaw or Milan. What differs on arrival is not the terminal but the route: whether your flight came from inside the Schengen Area or from outside it. A Greek timetable calls the same thing an international arrival, which is the same distinction described from the Greek side.

From the aircraft to the arrivals hall

The airport is compact, and the route out is short and signposted. Arriving aircraft park either at a gate or on a remote stand, in which case a bus brings you to the terminal. From there you follow the arrivals signs, clear passport control if your route requires it, collect checked bags at reclaim, pass the customs channels and step into the public hall.

As a rough planning figure: a Schengen arrival with hand luggage only can be outside in about ten minutes. A flight from outside the Schengen Area, at the August peak, with bags to wait for, can take the better part of an hour. Both extremes happen at the same airport on the same day, so anyone meeting you should watch the screens rather than the ticket.

Passport control applies only to non-Schengen arrivals

Greece is in the Schengen Area. Arrive from another Schengen country, and there is no passport check at all: you walk from the aircraft to reclaim. Arrive from outside the zone, and you clear immigration. From Crete the common non-Schengen routes are the UK and Ireland, and Ireland catches people out because it is in the EU but not in Schengen. Switzerland works the other way round: outside the EU, inside Schengen, so Zurich and Geneva flights skip the check.

Since 2026 that queue also includes the EU Entry/Exit System. A non-EU visitor now has fingerprints and a facial image taken, and the digital record replaces the passport stamp. The first crossing is the slow one, because the biometrics are captured from scratch; later trips reuse the file. Greece completed the rollout across its airports on 10 April 2026 and has been running the system at every border crossing since 21 July 2026. See the passport control page for the full detail, including who is exempt and why ETIAS is a different thing that has not started.

Baggage reclaim, and what to do if a bag is missing

Belt numbers are not part of the flight data, so they are not on the screens above. They appear on monitors inside the reclaim hall once you have landed, with your flight number next to the belt. The hall is small: in high summer several flights land within minutes of each other, and the belts queue together.

If a bag does not appear, sort it out while you are still inside the airport. Find your airline’s baggage desk in the reclaim area and ask for a lost baggage report, known in the industry as a Property Irregularity Report, or PIR. That report is the document every later step depends on. Keep your baggage tag and your boarding pass.

The deadlines after that are set by the Montreal Convention and they are strict.

• Delayed baggage. A written claim must reach the airline within 21 days, counted from the day the bag is returned to you.
• Damaged baggage. The written claim must reach the airline within 7 days, counted from the day you collect the bag.

Liability is capped at about 1,519 Special Drawing Rights per passenger. That figure is a ceiling on what an airline owes, not a fixed payout. Receipts for what you had to buy while the bag was missing are what turn a claim into money.

Customs: the green and red channels

Most arrivals walk straight out. Where channels are marked, green means nothing to declare and red means goods to declare, and officers can stop anyone in either. Arriving from another EU country there are no duty-free limits as such, because you are inside the EU internal market. Arriving from outside the EU, allowances apply per adult and anything above them has to be declared. Cash is the rule people miss: entering or leaving the EU with 10,000 euro or more, in any currency, requires a declaration. See the customs page for the details.

Meeting an arriving passenger

Waiting drivers, families and transfer reps all gather in the public arrivals hall, past reclaim and customs. Two things make the wait work.

First, timing. Use the estimate on the screens, then add ground time after the status reads Landed: leaving the aircraft, the queue if the flight is non-Schengen, and the bags. Turning up when the aircraft touches down means standing around for half an hour.

Second, where to leave the car. Wait in the car park. The first 15 to 20 minutes there are free, it is open around the clock, and the terminal doors are two to three minutes away on foot. The kerbside lane in front of the building is for brief stops and cars are moved on, so it does not work for a flight that is running late.

Getting away from the airport after you land

The airport sits about 5 km east of Heraklion city centre, and everything leaves from just outside the arrivals exit.

• City bus. A Zone A ticket to the centre costs €1.30 bought in advance or €2.30 from the driver, the ride takes about 20 minutes, and departures run roughly every 10 to 15 minutes from about 06:00 until approximately midnight. See the bus guide for the stop and the zones.
• Taxi. About €19 into town by day and around €22 at night, 10 to 15 minutes in normal traffic. The night tariff runs from 00:00 to 05:00 and roughly doubles the per-kilometre rate. Card payment is accepted. See the taxi guide for operator prices to the resorts.
• Pre-booked transfer. The driver meets you in the hall with a name sign, which is the calm option after a late landing or with children. See the airport transfer guide to compare the options.
• Car hire. The rental counters are inside the terminal, and the vehicles are in the airport car park.

Typical road distances from HER, in normal traffic: Heraklion centre about 5 km and 10 to 20 minutes; Hersonissos about 25 km and 25 to 35 minutes; Malia about 35 km; Agios Nikolaos about 65 km. Coaches to the rest of Crete, including Chania and Rethymno, leave from the city bus station rather than from the airport, so an onward journey means getting into Heraklion first. See the transport guide for the whole picture.

Landing late at night

Charter schedules put a fair number of flights into HER after 23:00, and that changes the arithmetic. The city bus has stopped for the night, so the realistic choices are a taxi at the night tariff or a transfer booked before you flew. Car hire desks keep longer hours in season than out of it, but confirm your pickup time with the company rather than assuming.

If your onward journey cannot start until morning, it is worth deciding that before you land rather than in the hall at half past one. See the hotels page for what is near the airport. There is no hotel inside the terminal itself.

Why arrival times move in summer

Two reasons, and both are outside the airport’s hands. Inbound flights arrive into a slot system that is congested across the whole Mediterranean at the July and August peak, so a delay accumulated at the departure airport travels with the aircraft. And the passport queue is less predictable than it used to be: during severe congestion an airport is allowed to pause biometric capture temporarily, a flexibility that Greece and eight other countries asked the European Commission to extend in July 2026.

The practical response is the same in both cases. Check the estimated arrival time again shortly before you leave for the airport, and treat the scheduled time as the least useful number on the page.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check Heraklion Airport arrivals today?
Use the arrivals screens at the top of this page. They cover three hours behind and six hours ahead of the current time and refresh about once a minute, so a flight landing today is there; a flight landing tomorrow is not.

Does Heraklion Airport have a Terminal 1?
No, there is one passenger terminal for all flights. A “Terminal 1” on your booking is a placeholder.

Do arrivals go through passport control at Heraklion?
Only on non-Schengen routes, most commonly from the UK and Ireland. Arrivals from another Schengen country walk straight to baggage reclaim.

How long does it take to get out after landing?
About ten minutes for a Schengen arrival with hand luggage only, and up to roughly an hour for a non-Schengen arrival with checked bags at the summer peak.

Where do I meet someone arriving?
In the public arrivals hall, past reclaim and customs. Wait in the car park if you are driving; the first 15 to 20 minutes there are free.

Which belt has my luggage?
Monitors in the reclaim hall show the belt next to your flight number. Belt numbers are not part of the flight data, so they cannot be shown before you land.

My bag did not arrive. What now?
Ask for a lost baggage report, the Property Irregularity Report, at your airline’s desk while you are still inside the airport. Then claim in writing within 21 days for a delayed bag, or within 7 days for a damaged one.

Is there a bus from the airport late at night?
The city service runs from about 06:00 until approximately midnight, so a flight landing after that means a taxi at the night tariff or a pre-booked transfer.

Where do I see departing flights instead?
Outbound flights and check-in timing are on the departures page.