It said the best performing month for 2022, so far, is June, with the total passenger traffic reaching 1,009,069 (Larnaca Airport: 650,519 – Paphos Airport: 358,550) and the average aircraft load factor reaching 87% (87% arriving and 86.2% departing).

Hermes said: “It is a positive development, as it is the first time since the pandemic emerged, that Cyprus airports record - since October 2019 - had such a significant inflow of passengers in a single month”.

The top markets for June for arriving passengers were the United Kingdom, Greece, Israel, Germany, and Poland.

“After many months of challenges due to the pandemic, the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, and the low levels in passenger traffic, summer 2022 shows a significant recovery, confirming the upward trend,” Hermes said.

According to Hermes senior manager Maria Kouroupi: “Surpassing the 1 million passenger barrier in June, besides the positive impact it has on morale, becomes evident that efforts made during the previous months by Hermes and other tourism stakeholders have borne fruit”.

She said the summer season has commenced with the “most positive signs, revealing passengers’ thirst for travel, as well as the vote of confidence placed in our country as a tourist product”.

Cyprus tourism is expected to improve after tourist arrivals were down 51% last year on pre-COVID levels when a record 3.97 million arrived in 2019.

Source: Financial Mirror