Cyprus Airways announced Monday its best January passenger results since 2019 after they increased nearly ten times from the year before.
Last month the Cypriot Flag-carrying airline carried 27,356 passengers from 2,776 in January 2022, almost ten times more.
It operated 277 flights, up from 80 in January 2022, and improved its load factor by 30% points. Compared to 2019, before the pandemic, the airline carried 56% more passengers and operated 69% more flights than then.
“We started this year on a positive note, achieving good results during our traditionally quiet period.
“This augurs well for the year ahead, during which we will continue expanding our operations to serve 19 destinations and support our ambitious, yet controlled, growth plans”, said Natalya Milovanova, Chief Financial Officer of Cyprus Airways.
Paul Sies, Chief Executive of the Airline, added: “Over the last few weeks, we announced the strengthening of our network by adding important interflag-carrying gateways like Dubai, Paris and Rome.
“We intend to continue expanding and developing our network further with more point-to-point destinations to support our increasing VFR and business traffic whilst also increasing year-round connectivity to/from Cyprus.
“Together with the support of the Cypriot Ministries of Transportation and Tourism, the hospitality sector and other tourism stakeholders, we will be in a strong position to achieve further growth to continue assisting the tourism sector.
“Although we note growth, we also find ourselves in a very competitive environment where other carriers are copying our network development and adding capacity whilst lowering fares.
“This is not healthy for the market.
“Many of these carriers closed shop during the Covid pandemic whilst others had generous handouts from their governments.
“Cyprus Airways continued operating, bringing stranded tourists and residents back home and assisting the island with cargo and passenger connectivity during this crisis”.
In the summer, Cyprus Airways will start operations in Dubai, Milan, Zurich, Prague, Basel, and Cairo with multiple weekly schedules.
Depending on demand, cities like Milan and Paris are expected to be serviced with additional weekly services.
Throughout summer, the airline will continue operating to Rome and Paris and expects to further extend these destinations in winter 23/24, including twice weekly services to Santorini, Skiathos, and Preveza.
Crete and Rhodes are expected to be serviced with three times a week flights, and Thessaloniki twice a week.
Services to Beirut will be operated daily, whilst operations to Tel Aviv will increase by up to 10 flights per week.
Services to Yerevan, Armenia, are set to increase to up to four weekly flights, whilst Athens will be serviced with up to three daily flights.
