Kasteli Air Base (Kasteli Airport)

Kasteli Air Base, also spelled Kastelli, is a Hellenic Air Force installation at Kasteli on Crete, 39 km south-east of Heraklion.

British and Greek technicians built the airfield in November 1940, shortly after Greece entered the Second World War, and its taxiway was destroyed before the Battle of Crete. After the German occupation in June 1941 the base was rebuilt using forced labour from the local population, and a reconnaissance squadron was formed there. Between 1941 and 1943 it supported German reconnaissance and supply missions to North Africa. On 4 July 1943 a British Special Air Service raiding party attacked the airfield to divert German attention from Allied preparations for the invasion of Sicily, placing explosives on several aircraft before withdrawing under fire.

After the liberation of Crete in November 1944 the base operated as the Air Detachment of the Hellenic Air Force's 115 Combat Wing. The Air Force Construction Unit rebuilt and modernised the facility between March 1951 and November 1952. In November 1968 the unit became part of the 126 Combat Group; in July 1974 it was redesignated the 133 Combat Group under the Hellenic Tactical Air Force Headquarters, and it became an independent unit in July 1978. Until 1986 the base mainly hosted F-84, A-7 and F-4 aircraft. The 206 Air Force Infrastructure Wing upgraded the runway and other facilities between June 1995 and 1997.

The base hosts the 133 Combat Group, which flies the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Since February 2020 a civil airport for Heraklion has been under construction on the south-western side of the base, on a 600-hectare site adjacent to the military airfield, which is to remain in operation alongside it.