Filenews 8 June 2022
A number of delays in flights to and from the UK from Larnaka and Paphos airports caused the so-called "chaos" that prevails at British airports due to a lack of staff on airlines and ground handling personnel.
At the same time, based on the data of Hermes Airports, the number of cancellations was negligible, while passenger traffic is on a steady course of recovery after the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Hermes data, there were a total of 223 delays in arriving flights at Larnaka airport in May from the UK, representing 12% of the total flights during that period. Delays were also recorded in the corresponding number of departures.
In Paphos, the problems of British air carriers and ground handling companies resulted in delays in 264 arriving flights, representing 26% of the total, while delays occurred in 294 departures, representing 29% of the total.
Based on Hermes data, the impact on flight cancellations is considered negligible, since 24 arriving flights were cancelled at Larnaka Airport with a corresponding number of departures in May, while Paphos had cancellations of 20 arrivals and 21 departures.
It is recalled that based on passenger traffic data for May, almost 885,000 passengers travelled to and from Cyprus with travel traffic for the first five months of 2022 approaching 2.4 million.
According to British media, airlines such as British Airways, EasyJet, Tui and Wizz Air have cancelled hundreds of flights. Many attribute the problems observed at British airports to the redundancies that airlines and ground handling companies have carried out during the lockdown period due to the pandemic.
