CHQLGSA

Chania International Airport

Souda, Greece · Asia

Asia Europe/Athens IVCA 46.5

88direct destinations

35airlines

1runway

3,347 mLongest runway

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. It is a gateway to western Crete for an increasing number 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 sixth-busiest airport in Greece.

Location

35.531°N, 24.151°E · 149 m s. n. m. (490 ft)

General data

CountryGreece

CitySouda

IATA codeCHQ

ICAO codeLGSA

Coordinates35.531°N, 24.151°E

Elevation149 m s. n. m. (490 ft)

Time zoneEurope/Athens

Runways1

Longest runway3,347 m

OperatorFraport

Direct destinations88

Official website Its quality in the IVCA Ranking

Runways · 1

11/29

Length3,347 m10,981 ft

Width45 m148 ft

SurfaceAsphalt

Lighted✓

Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.

Radio frequencies · 3

Tower

121.100

Ground

121.700

Approach

118.125

Look for a live feed on LiveATC External site; not every airport has a feed.

Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.

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.

In 1959, this activity was transferred to the military airport of Souda. 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 as a military airfield 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. According to the agreement, the joint venture will operate the 14 airports (including Chania International Airport) for 40 years as of 11 April 2017.

In June 2018 Fraport Greece completed the new aircraft layouts, which are now using push back to double the parking space. The passenger safety area has been expanded, the number of hand baggage scanners from 5 to 8, the duty-free store space tripled from 400 sq.m. to 1,200 sq. meters, the VIP space moved to increase the number of boarding gates from 14 to 16 and the dividing walls in the departure halls were removed in order to create a space of 3,000 sq. meters. A new sewage pumping station was built, and the network (approximately 3.5 km) was connected to the municipal network. Electromechanical installations, including new motor control centres (MCCs), wiring, lighting, and electrical panels, were optimized. The apron lighting was upgraded, and the water closets (WCs) were renovated to increase the number of toilets in the non-Schengen area. Additionally, the escalator was relocated to better utilize the available space.

On 10 June 2018, Air Force One carrying U.S. President Donald Trump stopped for refuelling in Chania during Trump's flight from the G7 meeting in Quebec to the meeting in Singapore with the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un.

Airlines operating here · 35

Other airlines with direct routes

Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).

Photo: Frente · CC BY-SA 2.0 de · view original

Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

See all airports Search “Souda”

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

This page was last updated on October 15, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Chania International Airport (CHQ). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ

MLA

“Chania International Airport (CHQ).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Chania International Airport (CHQ).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Chania International Airport (CHQ). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_chq,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Chania International Airport (CHQ)}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-15},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/CHQ |title=Chania International Airport (CHQ) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}