Located off the south coast of Turkey in the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea, the island of Cyprus is a popular destination among holidaymakers from Europe and further afield. It has three main international airports, with the operations at one of these facilities bound by a complex political situation. There is also a fourth facility that is now disused, with the three operational ones being:

• Larnaca Glafcos Clerides International Airport (LCA)
• Paphos International Airport (PFO)
• Ercan International Airport (ECN)

Larnaca replaced Nicosia International Airport

Located in the southeast of the Mediterranean island nation, Cyprus Inform notes that Larnaca International is the country's largest and busiest airport. Before the industry-wide downturn caused by the onset of coronavirus, it was serving more than eight million passengers a year, with most of the traffic serving the facility being of a seasonal nature. This reflects Cyprus' status as a holiday hotspot.

Larnaca International opened in February 1975 and replaced Nicosia International (NIC) as Cyprus's primary international air hub. Nicosia had ceased functioning as a commercial airport due to the Turkish invasion of the island the previous year. It was left derelict after that, resulting in scenes such as the ones pictured below. Today, it reportedly serves as a UN base but no longer handles flights.

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Despite, as Trellows notes, initially having a landing strip too short to serve jet aircraft, Larnaca's runway 04/22 now stretches for 3,000 meters (9,823 feet). This allows it to handle intercontinental traffic, such as, as reported by the New York Times, Gulf Air's former twice-weekly non-stop flights to New York John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Last year, eight million passengers used the airport.

Bouncing back

This saw the facility come closer to reaching its pre-coronavirus peak of 8.23 million, which it achieved in 2019. In 2024, scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that just over 9.6 million seats are scheduled on flights to and from Larnaca International Airport. This capacity is spread across some 51,618 flights, offering 11,251,264,442 available seat miles.

Therefore, flights serving Larnaca would need to have an average load factor of around 86% for the airport to exceed its record annual passenger total. Wizz Air has the most significant presence at the facility, with 8,834 flights, 1,770,077 seats, and 2,019,967,207 ASMs scheduled this year, followed by Greek flag carrier Aegean Airlines, which has 5,656 flights, 1,079,640 seats, and 643,414,488 ASMs.

Paphos International Airport

Paphos International (PFO) is Cyprus's second-largest airport and is ideally situated for tourists visiting the west of the sun-kissed Mediterranean island. It recently turned 40 years old, having initially opened back in 1982. Unlike Larnaca, it serves as a joint public/military airport, with Cyprus's National Guard and Air Force also present. Furthermore, unlike Larnaca, it doesn't typically handle cargo flights.

Pre-pandemic traffic peaked in 2019 when just over three million passengers used the airport, whose asphalt concrete-paved runway 11/29 stretches for a distance of some 2,699 meters (8,855 feet). Due to the tourism-driven nature of flights to Paphos (and indeed Cyprus as a whole), many of these passengers typically arrive and depart on flights that only operate seasonally and/or on a chartered basis.

That being said, certain routes are served all year round, with the UK being a key market in this regard thanks to low-cost carriers such as easyJet and Jet2, as well as flag carrier British Airways. Meanwhile, Ryanair has a considerable year-round presence at Paphos, having opened a base there in 2012. As well as serving a host of European destinations, the airline also flies to the Middle East from Paphos.

Since the pandemic, Paphos has broken its annual passenger record in consecutive years, handling 3.18 million guests in 2022 and 3.56 million in 2023. This year, data from Cirium shows that 4.26 million seats are scheduled on flights to and from the facility, with these being spread across 22,204 flights and offering 6,590,943,140 ASMs. Ryanair accounts for more than half of the traffic by flights and seats.

Ercan International Airport

The third and final active commercial airport on the island of Cyprus is Ercan International (ECN). As Simple Flying explored in more depth in an article published earlier this year, this facility's operations are restricted due to its location in the contested territory of Northern Cyprus. This includes the fact that only Turkish aircraft can fly there, as Turkey is the currently only country to formally recognize it.

Military airfields

It is also worth noting that the island of Cyprus is home to several military airfields, such as RAF Akrotiri, which has been in use since it opened in 1955. According to the RAF, it houses two groups today: the No. 84 Squadron and the No. 903 Expeditionary Air Wing. Its runway is 2,745 meters (9,006 feet) long.

What do you make of the airports that serve the island of Cyprus? How many have you flown to or from in the past? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!