AS OF YESTERDAY morning over 35,000 foreigners had arrived in Cyprus from Lebanon since the start of the Israeli offensive, according to Communications and Works Minister Harris Thrassou.
Thrassou said that only 15,000-20,000 of those passengers had departed over the same period.
The majority of people who have so far fled Lebanon are Americans, French, British, Swedes, Canadians and Australians.
Despite the fact that many countries are on the tail end of their evacuation process, thousands are still flooding daily into the island, as developing nations are beginning to evacuate their citizens.
Yesterday three Indian warships coming from Lebanon arrived on the island with 900 Indians.
The Indians were then bussed to Larnaca airport and flown to India on two Jumbo aircraft.
The government had previously expressed its concern that, though it can continue accepting evacuees, there would be a “serious problem” if there was a sudden influx of people who had no transportation out of Cyprus.
Cypriot Foreign Ministry’s Consular Affairs Division Director Omiros Mavromatis said that there have not yet been any problems with the circulation of ships.
But while the waves of evacuees have not yet overwhelmed the ports, the increasing numbers of outgoing flights are beginning to take a toll on the Larnaca airport.
Under normal conditions, the Larnaca airport can admit 16-18 parked aircraft in the airport, but in recent days there have been an average of 30 planes stationed at the airport at any one time.
An additional 30 planes departed from Larnaca on Sunday aside from the normally scheduled flights.
One British passenger departing on a regularly scheduled flight on Sunday evening said that it took her over two hours to check in her suitcases. Her flight was delayed by almost three hours.
“The cues were out the door. You couldn’t even find space to stand, let alone sit. Of course, it’s not the airport’s fault. It just isn’t big enough.”
A new Larnaca Airport capable of handling 7.5 million passengers a year is currently under construction. Hermes group, the firm that won the contract bid for construction and management of the new airport, pledged that the new airport would be completed on time in 2009.
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