Aerolineas Argentinas is planning some very special Airbus A330-200 charters to Cyprus. Two roundtrips are currently scheduled with one coming next week and another in early September. These nonstop charters will support the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
Aerolineas Argentinas plans nonstop charters to Cyprus
Back in July, the Argentinian flag carrier announced it was to operate two roundtrip flights between Buenos Airlines and Cyprus to carry troops. The troops will relieve members of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic that are deployed in Cyprus in support of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
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The two flights will carry almost 250 members of the Armed Forces to Larnaca. The troops will be relieving a group that has served a six-month mission, who will finally be returning home.
For Aerolineas Argentinas, this is an exceptional opportunity to run these nonstop flights in support of its home country. Pablo Ceriani, President of Aerolineas Argentinas, stated that the airline was proud to be taking an active role in this effort in a press release viewed by Simple Flying.
At the same time, Agustín Rossi, the Minister of Defense, stated the following:
"Troop reliefs were usually carried out with commercial airlines that carried military personnel, but in the context of this pandemic, we had to find a solution. Now we have the chance to operate two flights to carry the new contingent and bring back home the Argentine personnel who concluded their mission there."
Argentina is supporting a UN peacekeeping mission. UN peacekeepers are often referred to as "Blue Helmets." The Cyprus peacekeeping mission is one of the longest-running UN peacekeeping missions, having been set up in 1964 to prevent fighting between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. Now, the mission supervises the ceasefire lines, dealing with incidents as they arise, delivering humanitarian aid to local communities, and supports normal civilian activity.
What are the flight details?
Routesonline reports that the first Airbus A330-200 will depart on August 17th at 08:00 local time from Buenos Aires' Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE). After a 15 hour and 45-minute flight, the A330-200 will touch down in Larnaca International Airport (LCA) in Cyprus, arriving at 05:45 local time in LCA the next day. The second flight will operate from Buenos Aires on the same schedule departing on September 3rd.
Westbound, the flight is scheduled to take 16 hours and 25 minutes. The flights will depart Larnaca at 08:00 local time and arrive in EZE at 18:25 local time on the same day. The first return flight is scheduled for August 22nd, while the second one will depart on September 8th.
The Airbus A330-200
Aerolineas Argentinas outfits its Airbus A330-200s with 272 seats. There are 24 in business class and 248 in economy class. There are 10 A330-200s in the airline's fleet.
The range of the A330-200s, per the airline, is 13,400 kilometers, or about 8,326 miles. This route is pushing the aircraft to its limits. The route between Buenos Aires and Larnaca is about 7,600 miles, depending on the flight path chosen. This is the next set of impressive flights after the airline's repatriation missions that saw it flying to London and special trips to Shanghai via New Zealand, bringing critical supplies to Argentina.
What do you think about these nonstop Airbus A330 Aerolineas Argentinas charters to Cyprus? Let us know in the comments!
Routesonline was the source of the scheduling data and is linked above.