This summer, 50 airlines are expected to operate flights out of Larnaca and Paphos airports on 140 routes, including five new ones, from 95 destinations in 38 countries, said operator Hermes.
“Based on the current planning, the summer period shows positive signs, with airlines scheduling a significant number of flights,” said Hermes Airports.
In April, passenger traffic reached 85% of pre-COVID 2019 – a record tourism year.
From January until April, the passenger traffic at Larnaca and Paphos airports reached 1,587,337 passengers.
In April, the main passenger traffic came from the United Kingdom and Greece, Germany, Israel, Poland, Austria, and Italy.
Five new routes
New destinations such as Pisa (Ryanair), Salzburg (Eurowings), Bern (Helvetic), Nuremberg (Correndon) and Jeddah (Cyprus Airways) are launched to/from Cyprus airports.
In addition to these new routes, eight routes are reinstated after two years of coronavirus travel restrictions.
These include fights from the UK, Norwich (TUI) and Belfast (Jet2) to Paphos, from Denmark, Aalborg (Jet time) to Larnaca, from Norway, Trondheim and Stavanger (SunClass) to Larnaca and flights from Sweden, Norrkoping, (Jet time), Orebro and Växjö Kronenberg (SunClass) all to Larnaca.
New operations
easyJet is introducing a new operation from Paris CDG to Larnaca, with two weekly flights.
Wizz Air is adding operations from London Gatwick to Larnaca with up to 10 weekly flights, whereas the airline is also adding the Larnaca-Cardiff route with two weekly flights.
It is also introducing Larnaca-Yerevan with two weekly flights.
Eurowings is introducing a new operation from Prague with two weekly flights to Larnaca; it also adds flights from Stockholm, and Arlanda to Larnaca, with two weekly flights.
Jet2 has a new operation from Bristol to Larnaca and Paphos with two weekly flights each.
Ryanair is introducing Newcastle to Paphos with two weekly flights.
Cyprus Airways is adding the Larnaca-Cairo route.
Correndon is introducing the Larnaca-Dusseldorf route.
TUS Airways has added the Larnaca-Paris route.
Maria Kouroupi, Senior Manager of Aviation Development at Hermes Airports, said: “Undoubtedly, our country’s connectivity remains at the core of our strategy.
“We are working together with our airline partners for the total restoration -and further improvement- of their pre-pandemic network.
“This year’s schedule confirms the confidence in Cyprus as a destination since there is a significant recovery in existing and new markets.
“The efforts made in the past years to differentiate by expanding to other markets have paid off.
“More than ever before, it is essential for the entire tourism industry to use these opportunities and support demand to form more solid foundations for the future.”
Under normal circumstances, over 11 million passengers travel through Larnaca and Pafos International Airports every year.
It is estimated that for every additional flight arriving at Cypriot airports, around 100 additional job positions are created.
Larnaca and Paphos International Airports contribute around 4% to Cyprus’ GDP.
