TRAVEL: Cyprus airports traffic up 3.1% for first seven months

Passenger traffic at Larnaca and Paphos airports in the seven-month period January-July 2019 rose 3.1% to 6.1 million from 5.9 million last year, according to Hermes Airports data.

Although traffic at Cyprus airports is slightly up, the momentum of previous years has slowed.

In July alone, passenger flows at Larnaca Airport were around the same level as last year, reaching 1.06 million, while Paphos Airport saw an increase of 5.2%, from 351,723 to 370,276.

The increase in numbers is mainly attributed to a busier Paphos Airport. In the first seven months there was an increase of 7.7% with the number of passengers reaching 1.7 million from 1.6 million.

At Larnaca Airport the increase was limited to 1.5% with the number of passengers rising to 4.44 million from 4.38 million in January-July 2018.

In 2018, the number of passengers at both Larnaca and Paphos airports reached a record high of 10.93 million, up 6.7% from 2017.

The positive flows at the two airports is mainly down to Cypriot travellers who have increased by 14.6% in the first half of the year while arrivals have decreased by 0.9%.