Cyprus has made a big first step in reconnecting with the world as it relaunched commercial flights on Tuesday, aiming to see traffic surpass 1000 passengers a day and more than 600,000 by end of August.
Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said he was satisfied with procedures in place at Larnaca airport on Tuesday when it opened to commercial traffic for the first time since March 21, when the country went on lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus.
The first arrival was an Israir flight from Tel Aviv with 22 passengers and then an Aegean flight from Athens with 140 onboard, they were greeted by Karousos.
The first commercial flight to leave Cyprus on Tuesday was an Aegean flight to Athens which left at 8.00 am.
Karousos said: “Cyprus has won a major battle today with the resumption of flights and reinstating connectivity with 19 countries. I was very proud to welcome the first passengers who arrived at 10:15 at Larnaca Airport from Tel Aviv”.
He said that the Ministry’s aim is to have 1000 passengers a day in June, increasing to 200,000 in July and 400,000 in August.
“Then we expect to see some 600,000 passengers a month (after August) for a period of three months, 30% of these passengers will be tourists coming to Cyprus for holidays,” said Karousos.
He said an increasing number of airlines are interested in scheduling flights from countries that will not require travellers to carry COVID-19 certificates from June 20.
“As expected there is increased interest from Greece, but there is also interest from a list of countries and airliners to add flights from destinations from which we did not have connectivity prior to the coronavirus outbreak, such as Holland, Denmark and some airports in Germany,” said Karousos.
Airports reopened as part of the third phase of easing restrictive measures in an effort to get tourism back on track with Larnaca and Paphos airports reopening on Tuesday.
In total five arrivals and five departures were scheduled at Larnaca airport to and from Israel’s Tel Aviv, Athens and the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.
The airports were closed on March 21 after a decree came into force banning commercial flights.
Under its exit lockdown road map, Cyprus is opening its airports from June 9 to a select band of 13 Category A countries that are considered low risk.
They include Israel, Greece, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Malta but the island’s two biggest markets Britain and Russia are not on the approved list.
France, Belgium, Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands are also not on the list.
All those arriving between June 9 -19 will need to provide a health certificate proving they are Covid-19 negative.
From June 20, there will be no need to provide a health certificate from the 13 countries, but another six Category B countries will be added to the list including Switzerland, Romania and Poland.
Travellers to Cyprus need to have a coronavirus test 72 hours prior to boarding their flight, they will also need to electronically submit via a platform set up by authorities,
The government has created a platform (www.cyprusflightpass.com) where documents should be uploaded so travellers can find all the information regarding prerequisites to travel to the island.
Category A Countries: Malta, Greece, Bulgaria, Norway, Austria, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Israel, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia and Lithuania.
Category B Countries: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Estonia.
