Austrian Airlines promoting Cyprus travel

Good news for beleaguered Cyprus tourism, Austrian Airlines announced it will be building its summer flight program around the island and Greece.

Presenting their flight schedule for the summer in Vienna on Thursday, Austrian Airlines said it is anticipating increased demand for holiday travel, focusing on tourist destinations in Greece and Cyprus.

The airline also hopes to add destinations in Italy, Spain, and Turkey.

Presenting its flight schedule, the airline said it would be flying up to 16 times a week to Larnaca and 10 times to Crete.

Flights to the Greek islands of Ko, Mikonos and Rhodes are also on the agenda, as are packages to Mallorca, Ibiza and the Canary Islands.

The airline hopes to squeeze in around 150 flights to tourist destinations during the peak summer season when COVID-19 vaccinated tourists are expected to travel.

Austrian Airlines CCO Michael Trestl said: “We are expecting increased demand in the tourism sector in summer and are therefore increasing our offer to vacation destinations by up to 20% from July”.

“The booking phase for the 2021 vacation season is currently underway. With our expanded flight schedule, we want to create an attractive vacation offer for all Austrians.

“Of course, further development is highly dependent on the progress of the pandemic and the associated travel policies,” said Trestl.

He said air traffic in the first two months of the year had dropped to just 15% of last year’s volume.

The airline now aiming to match last year’s traffic by 20% and 30% in March and April, respectively.

Austrian Airlines will also be adding flights to Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Florence and Gothenburg, Krakow, and Oslo.

The airline plans to reinstate transatlantic flights to Chicago and other far destinations such as Tokyo, while there are currently no plans of reinstating flights to South Africa due to the appearance of a new more potent strain of coronavirus.