Private company

Cretan Airlines

Greek airline

Cretan Airlines was a short-lived airline based in Heraklion, Greece that operated from 1993 It is not to be confused with Cretan Airways, an airline also based in Heraklion, that never started revenue flights.2 It ceased to exist in 1995.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1991Founded1
  • HeadquartersHeraklion1
Cretan Airlines Airbus A320 Maiwald
Photo: Torsten Maiwald, GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons4

Cretan Airlines was a short-lived airline based in Heraklion, Greece that operated from 19932

The story

Cretan Airlines was established in 1993 by Cretan businessmen active in the

tourist sector. Their aim was to run an airline for flying tourists to airports

nearby their hotels. Cretan was the first Greek airline to operate Airbus

A320 aircraft that were leased from Adria Airways.

Although the main business was charter flights, a route from Thessaloniki to Athens

and Crete was opened. Cretan also planned opening other domestic routes and a decision to

order the Dornier Do-328 was made. Unfortunately, load

factors during the winter months proved to be too low, thus incurring great

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economic losses for the company. Therefore, its owners were forced to cease

operations in early 1995. At that time, the company had transported more

than 100.000 passengers and had a staff of approximately 250 people.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cretan Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

Services

Cretan Airlines operated scheduled services between Crete and cities in Germany, Italy and France.

Fleet

The fleet of Cretan Airlines consisted of five Airbus A320 aircraft:

SX-BAS (S5-AAA)

SX-BAT (S5-AAB)

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SX-BAU (S5-AAC)

SX-BAX (N431LF, TC-ONG and N316DA)

SX-

From Wikipedia’s article on Cretan Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1995Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1991Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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