Larnaka Airport Identifies Traffic Demand Across Europe
Larnaka International Airport (LCA) in Cyprus, operated by Hermes Airports, handled 8.1 million passengers in 2023, a 34% increase compared to the previous year with an average load factor of 81%. Named the winner of the 5-10 Million Passengers category at the Routes Awards during Routes World 2023 in Istanbul, the airport was recognized for maintaining momentum in network growth and airline partnerships, as a result of the innovative incentive scheme program offered to the airlines, and the close collaboration with the islands’ tourism stakeholders.
Recent CAPA analysis found that Cyprus tourism recovered to within 4% of the 2019 figure last year, with over 3.8 million visitors, closely related with the performance of the airport, as over 65% of the passenger traffic is inbound visitors. The UK market continued to play a pivotal role, while various other markets, such as Poland, Germany, France, Italy and many others had a significant growth and contributed to the recovery, compensating the losses from the Russian and Ukrainian markets in 2022. LCA operates 24/7 and serves 55 airlines from all types of carriers, having managed to maintain a balanced portfolio along the years. Wizz opened a base at LCA in 2020 with two aircraft and has since then increased its aircraft based to four, currently ranking as the number one airline.
A total of 95 routes from 35 countries are operated during the current summer period, with more than half of these routes planned to continue during the winter season. New additions include easyJet flights to Belfast International Airport (BFS), Glasgow Airport (GLA) and Birmingham (BHX) starting in May, as well as Nantes (NTE) starting in June. At the same time, Transavia France introduced Larnaka-Paris Orly from April.
New winter 2023-24 season services included Cyprus Airways’ flights to Brussels and Wizz Air ‘s operation to Radom, Poland.
As a member of Routes 360, LCA has uploaded multiple route opportunities to its profile to close connectivity gaps to European capitals and enhance overall air connectivity.
Opportunities include:
Spain: Currently Spain is one of the few markets that has very limited direct operation although there are 53k passengers traveling between Cyprus and Spain every year, indirectly. Madrid and Barcelona are leading the demand, with 14k and 15 passengers respectively, with the latter being served only during the peak summer months.
Germany: The German market is one of the top five markets for Cyprus, with significant potential for further expansion, especially for inbound leisure traffic. Whilst a significant part of the traffic concerns Frankfurt and Munich hubs as well as Berlin, there are opportunities from the region with either potential for increased operation from underserved airports, such as Hamburg and Stuttgart that are served only seasonally, as well as from airports not served at all, such as Nuremberg, Dortmund, Bremen and others. in the last few years Cyprus has been very popular in the off peak season for German tourists and therefore demand would be extended during the winter months.
Ireland: LCA seeks to serve Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, with indirect demand reaching 15,000 passengers annually.
Belgium: The market is currently served from Larnaka with mostly chartered operation, whilst there is potential for scheduled year-round operation, since the 33k passengers connecting via other airports make Larnaka-Brussels the most popular amongst all underserved/unserved routes.
Unserved:
- Madrid Airport (MAD)
- Dublin Airport (DUB)
- Tallinn Airport (TLL)
- Lisbon Airport (LIS)
- Aeroports de Lyon (LYS)
- Bournemouth Airport (BOH)
- Albrecht Dürer Airport Nürnberg (NUE)
Underserved
- Barcelona El-Prat Airport (BCN)
- Genève Airport (GVA)
- Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)
- Stuttgart Airport (STR)
- Brussels Airport (BRU)
- Hamburg Airport (HAM)
- RIX Riga Airport (RIX)
- Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)