Larnaka International Airport’s Growth and Route Expansion Strategies"

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%. Growth continues in 2024 recording a further increase of 5% for the first nine months of the year. 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.

Cyprus tourism has recovered after the pandemic with over 3.8 million visitors in 2023, closely related with the performance of the airport, as over 65% of the passenger traffic is inbound visitors. The UK market continues to play a pivotal role, while various other markets, such as Poland, Germany, Switzerland, the Baltics, France,  Italy and many others have a significant growth and contributed to the recovery, compensating to  the losses from the Russian and Ukrainian markets in 2022. The Israel market, despite the continuing warfare in the area has picked up after the first semester of 2024, and its numbers have risen to become the third largest market being served at Larnaka airport.  By the end of this year, Larnaka airport is projected that it will reach an all-year record with 8.5 total passengers.

LCA operates 24/7 and serves 52 airlines from all types of carriers, having managed to maintain a balanced portfolio along the years. In total 94 routes from 37 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa are operated from Larnaka airport.

New additions during the current summer season include Wizz Air flights to Milan, introduced as from early September, as well as easyJet flights to Belfast International Airport (BFS), Glasgow Airport (GLA) and Birmingham (BHX) that started in May, as well as Nantes (NTE) that started in June. At the same time, Transavia France introduced Larnaka-Paris Orly from April.

More forthcoming new services announced, include easyJet twice weekly flights to Amsterdam as from the end of October, and LOT four weekly flights also from the end of October growing to five weekly flights as from next Summer 2025. In April 2025 Condor Airlines will introduce twice weekly flights to Dusseldorf and Nuremberg, reinforcing further the operation from the German region, whereas Animawings, a Romanian based airline, will operate three weekly flights to Larnaka from Bucharest.

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:

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 Hannover, 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. In total 125k thousand people travelled indirectly between Cyprus and Germany during the last year, with Germany being the most promising market for development.

Spain: Currently Spain is one of the few markets that has  limited direct operation despite the indirect demand which comes to around 45K total pax  every year. Madrid and Barcelona are leading the travellers’ preferences, with the latter being served only during the peak summer months.

Italy: Italy is one of the most promising developing markets for Cyprus especially the last  couple of years, with most of the routes being in a radius of 2.5-3.5 hours flying time to Cyprus. Milan and Rome are positioned on the top of the list, whereas Venice and Bologna are the two most popular unserved routes. During 2023 100k total passengers travelled to Larnaka on direct flight, whereas another 65K have travelled via other points, something that points to an opportunity for additional direct  flights.

France: The total demand to Cyprus has tripled during the last few years, and despite the increased direct operation, there  are additionally  56k total passengers traveling indirectly.  The increased flights the last few years have pushed  demand from France to around   300k  total passengers. In addition to   Paris, other points in France such as Nice,  Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse have potential for direct operation.

USA:  With New York at the top of the list of the cities with demand from USA to Cyprus, there is an overall demand of 80K total passengers currently travelling via many other points in Europe. A direct operation to Cyprus could also serve demand to nearby destination as  there  is 2.5m indirect passenger traffic between the countries in the area and the US, such as Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, with which Cyprus has up to 8 daily flights.

India: Another long-haul market that Cyprus aspires to connect with is India. The traffic between Larnaka and India has developed during the last few years, with currently more than 30k total passengers travelling between Larnaka and India via points in Middle East or Gulf.  The most popular source city  is Delhi, whereas the traffic is mostly inbound either for holidays or for work. A direct flight  would again be benefited by the connecting traffic from countries in the area, such as Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt with which Cyprus is connected very well.

Belgium: The market is currently served from Larnaka with mostly chartered operation, whilst there is potential for scheduled year-round operation, given that there is again significant indirect demand as well as the fact that Cyprus will undertake the EU presidency the first semester of 2026 something that would reinforce demand.

Ireland:  whilst there are year round flights from Ireland to Pafos airport, Larnaka airport targets the Irish market as a way to achieve  penetration in a popular destination both for outbound and inbound opportunities.

 Unserved:

• Madrid Airport (MAD)
• Dublin Airport (DUB)
• Tallinn Airport (TLL)
• Lisbon Airport (LIS)
• Aeroports de Lyon (LYS)
• Bournemouth Airport (BOH)
• Brussels Airport
• Zagreb Airport
• Venice Airport

Underserved

• Barcelona El-Prat Airport (BCN)
• Genève Airport (GVA)
• Stuttgart Airport (STR)
• Hamburg Airport (HAM)
• Copenhagen Airport
• Stockholm Airport
• Oslo Airport