According to a press release by Hermes Airports, 50 airlines are expected to operate flights to/from Larnaca and Paphos airports on 140 routes this summer, including five new ones, from 95 destinations in 38 countries.

"Based on the current planning, the summer period shows positive signs, with airlines scheduling a significant number of flights," it noted.

It says that concurrently, in April 2022, passenger traffic recorded a significant improvement reaching 85% compared to the corresponding month of 2019. In total, from January 1 until 30 April 2022, the passenger traffic at Larnaca and Paphos airports reached 1,587,337 passengers. The main passenger traffic in April 2022 came from the United Kingdom and Greece, Germany, Israel, Poland, Austria, and Italy.

New destinations such as Pisa (by Ryanair), Salzburg (by Eurowings), Bern (by Helvetic), Nuremberg (Correndon) and Jeddah (Cyprus Airways) have been introduced. In addition to these new routes, eight routes were reinstated after two years. More specifically, 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.

It is noted that easyJet is introducing a new service from Paris CDG to Larnaca with two weekly flights, and Wizzair is adding service from London Gatwick to Larnaca with up to 10 weekly flights, in addition, the airline is also adding a Larnaca-Cardiff route and a Larnaca-Yerevan route with two weekly flights respectively.

Furthermore, Eurowings is introducing a new service from Prague with two weekly flights to Larnaca as well as flights from Arlanda airport in Stockholm to Larnaca twice a week. Jet2 is also introducing a new service from Bristol to both Larnaca and Paphos with two weekly flights each, while Ryanair is introducing Newcastle to Paphos with two weekly flights.  Cyprus Airways is adding a Larnaca-Cairo route, Correndon is introducing a Larnaca-Dusseldorf route and TUS Airways has added a Larnaca-Paris route.

Maria Kouroupi, Senior Manager of Aviation Development and Communication of Hermes Airports, said that "undoubtedly our country's connectivity remains at the core of our strategy. We are working together with our airline partners in order to completely restore and further improve the 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 besides the two main ones have paid off. More than ever before, it is essential for the entire tourism industry to use these opportunities and support demand, to form solid foundations for the future,” she concluded.

Source: Knews