Filenews 3 March 2022 - by Adamos Adamou
TUS Airways announced a significant increase in its routes and its flight schedule yesterday, as a result of the impending increase of its fleet, as it is expected that soon the three Airbus 320s it already has will become five.
The announcements were made in the context of yesterday's press conference of the company, in the presence of Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos and Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdiou, who welcomed TUS's decisions, considering that they will strengthen the efforts made to limit the impact on passenger traffic and tourism, which are expected due to the war in Ukraine.
According to yesterday's press release of the company, the new flight schedule of TUS Airways will include new destinations, since there will be routed flights to Belgium (Brussels), seasonal flights to three destinations in France, while in the upcoming winter season the company is expected to connect Cyprus with Saudi Arabia as well. In the plans of the company is to operate and flights to China, since, as announced yesterday by the General Executive Director of TUS Michael Weinstein, the company has been granted the rights for the route Larnaca – Beijing – Larnaca, with two frequencies per week, a development confirmed by Mr. Karousos. "I am sure that very soon the route will be implemented with multiple benefits, for the travelling public, but also for the transport of cargo, as well as for the economy of the country," the minister said on the matter.
Regarding yesterday's announcements by TUS, it was mentioned that the company's seasonal flight schedule from Larnaca will have, in addition to its traditional summer destinations from Greece, Skiathos and Preveza, now also Kefalonia and Kalamata and from Central Europe Lyon, Strasbourg and Toulouse, while the annual program of routed flights will have as destinations from Central Europe Brussels and Paris and from Israel the Tel Aviv and Eliat.
The company's seasonal flight schedule from Paphos will have Paris, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Nuremberg as destinations from Central Europe, while the annual flight schedule will have From Greece to Athens and from Israel to Tel Aviv. It was also mentioned that during the winter season 2022 – 2023 the company plans to operate flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, Marrakech, Dubai, Jeddah and Riyadh.
Continuous efforts to improve connectivity
In his address at yesterday's event, the transport minister welcomed TUS's announcements and said that the government's goal is to create the right environment to improve the country's connectivity, "while ensuring at the same time that we offer the skills that both strengthen airlines and facilitate the activation of new ones." Referring to the situation due to the Ukraine-Russia crisis, he said that as long as the situation in Ukraine remains unsettled and the sanctions imposed against Russia continue to exist, in Cyprus we will have about a 15% reduction in the total passenger traffic of our country for 2022, which translates into about 1.6 million passengers (arrivals and departures)".
In view of this, Mr. Karousos said that his ministry, in cooperation with the Deputy Ministry of Tourism and the airport manager, are working on various scenarios to achieve an improvement in the country's air connectivity "and to absorb to the extent possible the losses from the Russian market". "I assure you that we are doing everything possible to make up for the lost positions with alternative destinations and the start is today with the presentation of the new TUS flight program", he stressed.
