Filenews 8 September 2023 - by Adamos Adamou
Cypriot airports had the most passengers in their history last month, with passenger traffic in August breaking all-time records.
A development achieved against inflation, which seems to have affected neither outbound nor inbound tourism. Thus, the recent estimates of Hermes Airports' Senior Director of Aviation Development and Communication, Maria Kouroupi, were confirmed, which does not exclude a record for the whole year.
We note that the best year for Cypriot airports, as well as for tourism, was 2019, when passengers, departing and arriving, exceeded 11 million. In the same year, tourist arrivals approached 4 million.
Subsequently, due to the pandemic there was a stagnation in performance, but with the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions there is a steady and significant recovery. This was culminated in data released yesterday by the airport operator for August passenger traffic, which amounted to 1,516,320 passengers and an all-time high. This anticipates a new increase in tourist arrivals for the same month, the data of which will be published by the Statistical Service on September 18.
Almost 2 million More
Traffic at Larnaka and Paphos airports in August recorded an increase not only compared to last year but also compared to 2019. Specifically, in August 2022 passengers handled by the two airports were 1,256,058 and in August 2019 1,483,771, with this year's performance showing a percentage annual increase of 20.6% and an increase of close to 3% compared to the same month of the record year of 2019.
In the first eight months of this year, passenger traffic at the two airports amounted to 7,815,008 passengers compared to 5,922,194, i.e. there were approximately two million (1,892,814) more passengers with an annual increase of 32%. Compared to the first eight months of 2019, when passenger traffic amounted to 7,607,365 passengers, an increase of 2.7% is recorded this year.
Based on airline planning and Hermes Airports' estimates, passenger traffic is expected to increase in September as well.
It is noted that the growth so far and the performance of airports, which currently exceed those of 2019, become more important given the fact that the Russian and Ukrainian markets are still absent from the equation. Thus revealing the work done in recent years by Hermes but also by the competent Ministries – Transport and Tourism – to enhance the country's connectivity with new destinations.
