According to Hermes Airport, the number of passengers travelling through Paphos and Larnaca airports in 2017 reached 10 million.

The milestone passenger was Latvian citizen German Gedmintas a permanent resident in Cyprus who was leaving Larnaca on a flight to Brussels.

Within the first six months of the year, Larnaca airport had the third greatest passenger increase across Europe in the category for passenger traffic spanning from five to 10 million per year, data from ACI (airports council international) Europe, reveals.

The 22% increase corresponded to 571,926 more passengers.

Transport Minister Marios Demetriades said there was no room for complacency.

“It is a very important day,” he said. “For Cypriot air transport it is after all a remarkable number, 10 million passengers.”

Demetriades added that passenger traffic had recorded a 45% rise in recent years. When the current administration took over in 2013, the number was seven million.

The minister congratulated airport operator Hermes for the good work and the infrastructure it provides passengers.

“As a government we support all these efforts, either through the open skies policy we have adopted in recent years or the incentives we provide with Hermes, or as the Cyprus tourism organisation.”

Chairman of Hermes Panayiotis Hadjipantelis said it took a lot of work to increase and maintain passenger numbers.

“The immediate tackling of the structural problems and dysfunctions in the tourism sector must be an irrevocable goal, as was the repositioning of our tourist identity,” he said. “The challenge is there, considering that the prospects exist.”

Based on Hermes’ forecasts, the year will close with around 10.2 million passengers moving through both airports, up by 14% on 2016.

Source: Cyprus Mail