Cyprus foresees 9 pct increase in winter flight schedule

A raft of new routes to and from the main airports in Cyprus will see the number of available seats for travelers increase by nearly 9 percent this winter.

According to Hermes, the company that runs Larnaca and Paphos airports, there will be an additional 300,000 seats compared with the corresponding period last year.

Currently 70 airlines fly to and from the island's airports, connecting Cyprus with 40 countries.

"At Hermes Airports, we maintain partnerships with all tourism stakeholders in order to open a fixed channel that connects Cyprus to new markets in a coordinated and targeted manner that also takes into account new global tourism trends," Senior Manager Maria Kouroupi said in a press statement on Thursday.

Budget airline Ryanair, which mainly operates from Paphos on the west coast, will launch new flights from Beirut (Lebanon), Katowice (Poland) and Malta.

At the main Larnaca airport, Aegean Airlines will launch a new route from Beirut, while the low-cost Hungarian carrier Wizz Air will run services from Skopje (North Macedonia), Lviv (Ukraine), Chisinau (Moldova) and Krakow (Poland).

"The increase noted in flights during the winter months over the past few years has already contributed significantly to the overall rise in annual passenger traffic," Kouroupi said.