TO MARK the opening of the new Larnaca airport on November 10, Cyprus Airways (CY) is offering a number of one-way return tickets to Athens for only €125, inclusive of all taxes and surcharges.
Passengers can begin booking the special fare from today on the CY website www.cyprusairways.com
The offer is valid for travel on Tuesdays and Saturdays only from Tuesday November 10 until Saturday December 12. Around 70 seats per flight will be offered at the special rate during the offer period.
On Tuesdays, the outbound flight is CY322 departing at 8am and arriving in Athens at 9:45am.
On Saturdays the outbound flight is CY312 departing Larnaca at 10:15am and arriving in Athens at 12 noon. On both days the return flight is the last one of the day, CY349, departing Athens at 10.50pm and arriving in Larnaca at 00.25am.
The national carrier will also be giving a gift to all passengers who fly on the historic first flights in and out of the new airport on November 10.
The first flight to land in Cyprus will be CY403 from Amman in Jordan, which will land at 7.30am, and the first flight out will be CY322 to Athens, which will depart at 8am.
The airline did not say what the gift would be.
CY and EasyJet will be the first two airline to use the new airport between November 10 and 17. From that date on it will be opened to other airlines. The airport is being official inaugurated on November 7.
It also emerged yesterday that Cyprus has asked for €6 million in compensation from the EU on behalf of Cyprus Airways and Eurocypria as compensation on the basis of reduced competiveness in the airline market arising from their not being able to pass through Turkish airspace.
CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou told a parliamentary committee: “We made an announcement about this issue last year and it has been under consideration by the Finance Ministry since then. We believe significant progress is being made on this front.”
He went on to explain that the biggest competitive disadvantage to Cyprus Airways is the increased journey time resulting from having to fly around Turkey instead of using a more direct route. “As well as the costs of increased fuel, the Turkish air corridor being closed to us means that a flight to Russia will take us four hours when Aeroflot can accomplish it in two and a half.”
