Critical Assessment of the Heraklion Airport Relocation Project

Masters Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Transportation Science & Technology, grade: Very Good, Cranfield University (School of Engineering - Air Transport Department), course: MSc in Airport Planning and Management, language: English, abstract: The thesis considers the critical assessment of the new Heraklion airport relocation project in the island of Crete, in Greece. Greek government decided the relocation of Heraklion International Airport in the Kastelli area, 35 kilometres away from its current location, adjacent to an operational military airport. This decision is critically evaluated considering the historical and future development of the Cretan airport network and the role of tourism, as a critical factor of airport development. Cretan airports current and future infrastructure and traffic are accessed, using historical data since 1994 as well as generated annual traffic forecasts until 2030. At the same time passengers market analysis is attempted, based on passengers segmentation, catchment areas orientation and tourism evolution. Competition is set as a critical parameter for future development and is considered not only internally, between Cretan or Greek airports, but also externally concerning peer airports in other international tourist places. Additionally, critically assessing the planned new airport location, nine different relocation scenarios concerning are suggested and a framework for their evaluation is developed. Based on identified main relocation criteria, value management techniques like priority matrix and decision matrix are used for the framework analysis. Finally, the retention of Heraklion domestic operations in its current location is suggested, together with the relocation of all international operations in Tympaki airport, a prior military airport, situated 67 km away from the Heraklion airport.