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Harbour Engineering Transport Studies - Traffic Engineering - Traffic Safety Environmental Engineering

International Airport of Kastelli – Crete Island

The huge touristic growth in Crete Island resulted to a remarkable increase in passenger traffic. This has caused the saturation of the existing International Airport of Heraklion “Nikos Kazantzakis”. More specifically in 2007 the airport ranked second in national level (5,400,000 passengers) and first in charter flights (4,000,000 passengers). However the airport facilities are old, the technical features are no longer sufficient and the management of its operation has not been upgraded. Due to the long delays which was observed, the construction of a new International Airport was considered necessary to replace the existing. In such a case, the existing airport site would be redeveloped as a recreational area for residents.

Considering the above the Hellenic Civil Aviation Organization assigned the Master Plan of the new International Airport to the consultancy firm DENCO SA. The selection of the airport site as well as the determination of the runway axis position was included in the context of the study. The above was conducted successfully in collaboration with CNWAY. Finally the study was completed in 2004 and the competition for the project awarding in 2014.

Project details:

  • Several alternative locations of the airport were examined and the optimal was selected, taking into consideration the following two factors:
    a. The ease of aircraft approach and take off, taking into account the existing obstacles of the selected area.
    b. The total earthworks volume for each position of the examined runway location, in order to ensure the appropriate levels with free airfield surfaces according to ICAO specifications (landing zones and takeoff, safety zones, transitional surfaces, etc).
  • Selection of optimal axis position of the runway with total length 3,000m, with the provision to be extended to 3,800m. The runway finally positioned 450m parallel to the existing military runway in Kastelli Heraklion. Taxiway and land facilities were planned to be constructed to the west of the new runway.
  • By the end of construction, the new airport will be able to serve 9,000,000 passengers from which the domestic traffic represents approximately 15% of the total air traffic.