Budget airline Ryanair confirmed it will fly to Cyprus from 1 July after the holiday island mapped out plans to open airports and hotels from next month.
Ryanair will operate 40% of its normal July flight schedule, as Spain announced it would remove travel and visitor restrictions from 1 July.
This mirrors earlier plans announced by Italy, Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal to reopen their hotels and beaches for the key July-August family holiday season.
Ryanair will be offering daily flights from countries all over Northern Europe including Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Holland, Germany to the key holiday airports of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus from 1 July.
To celebrate the lifting of these travel restrictions across Europe, Ryanair has launched a seat sale for travel in July & August with fares starting from just €29.99 one way, but these seats must be booked by midnight Thursday 28 May.
Cyprus airports will open to 13 countries – such as Malta, Israel, and Greece – from June 9 and then another six – including Switzerland – from June 20.
The island’s two biggest markets the UK and Russia are not on the list of countries from where flights are allowed into Cyprus.
Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson said: “After 4 months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by Governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines.
“European families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much-needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations, for July & August before the schools return in September.
Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from 1 July with a range of low fare seat sales.
All Ryanair flights will operate with new health guidelines in place, which will require all passengers (and crews) to wear face masks at all times in the airport terminals and on board aircraft, in compliance with EU guidelines.
“We look forward to welcoming millions of Ryanair passengers and their families back on board, and flying them on holiday as Europe’s economies begin to recover from these difficult recent lockdowns, which have been so successful in reversing the spread of the Covid-19 virus,” said Wilson.
