Passenger traffic at Larnaca airport has reached a new high for the year but not an all-time record, as a total 529 flights over the next three days will carry 76,000 travelers to and from Cyprus.
In all, 35,000 passengers were expected to travel on Wednesday, 16,000 on Thursday and 25,000 on Friday, the most popular public holiday after Easter, the operator Hermes Airports announced.
Thassos Katsourides, General Secretary of the Asdsociation of Cyprus Travel Agents (ACTA) said that more Cypriots are traveling this year than ever before, probably because the public holiday falls on a Friday and many people are combining their vacations over a long weekend or have opted to take the whole week off.
“Cypriots are traveling to Greece, which accounts for more than half going by air or sea, while Britain remains the second choice, primarily due to the expatriate community there,” Katsourides told CyBC recently.
“Eastern Europe is still a strong attraction for holidaymakers, while Cypriots are seen going even to the most exotic of destinations, such as the Far East, but in much smaller numbers than any other national group,” he said.
News reports from the airport said that services seemed to be operating calmly, unlike the chaos that existed a month ago with check-ins being delayed or baggage lost and flights losing their departure slots. The two ground handling companies, Louis subsidiary LGS and Swissport-Vassilopoulos, have been fined a total of EUR 112,000 as they were blamed for the problems, while LGS has appealed the decision saying that the government ignored the inefficiencies of the present terminal buildings.
Paphos should move into a totally refurbished terminal building in November, while Larnaca’s new terminal building will be ready in November 2009
Source: Financial Mirror
