Filenews 9 March 2023 - by Natasha Christoforou
The benefits of the Cyprus-Greece ferry connection will begin to "taste" from August and Larnaca, which after many efforts and a wild background, was finally included in the program of the contractor Scandro Holding Ltd.
Official announcements will be made tomorrow by Kition Ocean Port, Larnaca Municipality, LCCI and ETAP, which have long claimed a share of the ferry connection, which started last year from the port of Limassol. The route from Larnaca to Piraeus and vice versa will start in early August and will last until mid-September on a weekly basis, with ticket prices moving at the same levels as in Limassol. The plan of Scandro Holding Ltd is to operate 14 consecutive routes from the Port of Limassol and the remaining eight to be made from the port of Larnaca.
The players of Larnaca are particularly satisfied since they consider very favorable the fact that the itineraries start in August, which is the month chosen for the majority of tourists to travel, due to the summer permits. Both Kition Ocean Port, which took over about a year ago, and the city's operators are investing in this route as they believe that it will give new development prospects to the port of Larnaca, while the city will also gain economic benefits from the arrival of tourists from Greece.
The inclusion of Larnaca in the Cyprus-Greece ferry connection was preceded by a long backstory that actually began two years ago. When the tender was announced by the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, there were fierce reactions from the Municipality of Larnaca, the LCCI and the ETAP, which in a joint announcement in January 2021 stated that conditions were included that favour the choice of the port of Limassol over Larnaca, since the main criterion was the distance from Piraeus. The competition was considered "photographic" at the time and for this reason the city's officials, with their repeated performances to the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, managed to bring Larnaca back into the frame.
As "F" is informed, until last year there were unbearable pressures from Limassol officials in order not to include Larnaca in the ferry connection with Piraeus this year, but the contractor took a different decision, giving a vote of confidence to the port, where major projects are planned in the near future.
At the port of Larnaca, specific works are expected to be carried out in the near future for the convenience of passengers. The management company's goal is to achieve a ferry connection with Israel and at the same time to attract large cruise ships to the port. What is certain is that in the summer cruises from Haifa will resume, a route that the port of Larnaca has maintained for years.
