Helios to operate from Humberside

By a Staff Reporter

HELIOS Airways, Cyprus’ second charter airline, will begin operating flights from Humberside International Airport to Larnaca next summer.

The airline said yesterday said it would be the first air link between the two cities.

Humberside, in north Lincolnshire, is one of the fastest growing regional airports in the UK. The airport is close to the towns of Hull, Leeds, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Sheffield.

In co-operation with the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) and Humberside International Airport, Helios recently organised a Cypriot evening to promote the new flight to 80 local travel agents.

Helios has set as its first target to bring 50,000 tourists to Cyprus this year and hopes to expand its routes and capacity next spring when it takes up delivery of two state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800s.

The airline will operate a Wednesday night service from Humberside, on behalf of Airtours, First Choice and JMC, Humberside’s newest operator. Flights will commence in May 2001 and run until October. Andreas Christodoulides, Marketing and Sales Manager for Helios, stressed the importance of having flights to Cyprus from regional airports in the United Kingdom as a way of increasing tourist traffic to the island.

“Cyprus is an extremely popular holiday destination in the UK and it is excellent news for the people in the area that they can now fly direct from their local airport,” he said.

Humberside’s Airport Marketing Manager, Anja Hazebroek, said: “Humberside passengers have voiced their need for new destinations and we are pleased to celebrate this new route to Larnaca through this useful passenger and agent

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.