Cyprus Airways carried more passengers in January this year than in 2019 before the start of the pandemic, the carrier announced on Monday.
A total of 27,356 passengers travelled on the airline last month, a number close to tenfold last year’s number. The company operated 277 flights and improved seat occupancy by 30 per cent. Compared with January 2019, the airline carried 56 per cent more passengers and operated 69 per cent more flights. “We started this year on a positive note, achieving good results during our traditionally quiet period. This augurs well for the year ahead during which we will continue expanding our operations to serve 19 destinations,” Chief Financial Officer Natalya Milovanova said.
Over the last few weeks, the Cyprus flag-bearing airline announced new routes to gateway destinations like Dubai, Paris and Rome. It aims to continue to expand its network and offer improved year-round connectivity for the island, despite stiff competition. “Although we note growth, we also find ourselves in a very competitive environment where we see that other carriers are copying our network development and adding capacity while lowering fares. This is not healthy for the market. Many of these carriers closed shop during the Covid pandemic while others had generous handouts from their governments. Cyprus Airways continued operating bringing stranded tourists and residents back home and assisting the island with cargo and passenger connectivity during this crisis,” the carrier’s chief executive Paul Sies said.
This summer Cyprus Airways will start operations to Dubai, Milan, Zurich, Prague, Basel and Cairo with a multiple-weekly flights. Milan and Paris are expected to be serviced with additional flights depending on demand. Throughout summer the airline will continue operating to Rome and Paris and expects to further extend these destinations in winter 23/24 together with twice-weekly services each to Santorini, Skiathos and Preveza. Crete and Rhodes are expected to be serviced with thrice-weekly flights, and Thessaloniki with a twice-weekly service.
Services to Beirut will be operated daily, while operations to Tel-Aviv will increase to up to 10 flights per week.
Services to Yerevan, Armenia are set to increase to up to four weekly flights, while Athens will be serviced with up to three flights daily.
Source: Cyprus Mail
