The government is aiming for investment at and the possible future development of the old Larnaca airport, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said on Saturday.
Speaking during a visit to the old airport alongside Larnaca chamber of commerce and industry (Evel) chairman Nakis Antoniou, he said the visit’s purpose was “to see what prospects there are, what investments can be made in the area, and what kind of development can be implemented”.
“In general, we want to see what the next steps are and what actions the state should take in collaboration with [airport holding company] Hermes to move forward and develop the area,” he said.
He added that the government is “very interested in seeing this area develop, to offer business opportunities to Larnaca, which in turn will offer more jobs and upgrade the town’s business model.
“For us, it is an opportunity which we must seize.”
Asked whether private investors have shown interest in the old airport, he said, “from time to time, there have been various people who have expressed an interest in investing in this area, but to date we do not have anything concrete.
“We have identified a great opportunity here and we do not want the area to remain unexploited any longer. We want to see activities in the area immediately and we believe that we have not taken advantage of this, and that we must do so.”
Antoniou described the old airport as a “huge asset” which “can be exploited for the good of Larnaca and Cyprus in general”.
Vafeades also spoke on the matter of the current airport, saying the government is engaged in “ongoing actions” to attempt to attract new airlines to fly in and out of Larnaca.
However, he said, “at the stage we are in today, we are facing a global problem that all airlines have with aircraft engines, resulting in aeroplanes being constantly removed from service and sent for repair”.
Those engine problems have affected many airlines, including Cyprus Airways, which decided in June last year shelved plans to buy six Airbus A220s in 2027 due to “persistent problems” with the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines which power them.
Despite these difficulties, Vafeades did have good news to report, with Greek flag carrier Aegean having announced direct flights from Larnaca to Rome for the coming summer.
“We are positively approaching each new route which is added. The tourism deputy ministry and Hermes are continuing their efforts and doing a very good job so that we can create conditions for new airlines to come to Cyprus,” he said.
Last month, Hermes senior director Maria Kouroupi had said new routes have been added from Larnaca airport to Kuwait with Jazeera Airways and to Moldova’s capital Chisinau with FlyOne.
Additionally, she said that from Larnaca, Wizz Air are now flying to both Cairo and Milan, British Airways are now flying to London Gatwick as well as London Heathrow, easyJet are flying to Amsterdam, Lot Polish Airlines are flying to Warsaw, and SAS are flying to Copenhagen.
