Karousos: Cyprus working hard to mitigate impact from ban on Russian aircraft

The Ministry of Transport and the Deputy Ministry for Tourism are striving to offset the impact of airport traffic from Russia after Cyprus, along with the rest of the EU member states, closed their air space to Russian aircraft following the crisis in Ukraine, according to Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos.  The Minister hoped these measures will yield good results.

Speaking to CNA, Karousos said Cyprus estimated that air traffic to and from Russia was in the region of 1.3 million this year, which could amount to 15% of Cyprus' total air traffic.

Russia has traditionally been Cyprus’ second tourist market following the UK.

“We believe that this (air traffic) will be lost if the situation continues,” Karousos said, noting that since the Covid pandemic broke out the Ministry has been working to improve the island’s air connectivity.

“This is yielding results and in 2021 we had more destinations compared with 2019,” the Minister added, pointing out that statistics showed that Cyprus had one of the lowest reductions in air connectivity.

As he said, “the aim is to offset the impact we will have from the Russian and the Ukrainian market with other destinations.”

Noting that there is interest from other air carriers, Karousos said “we are in contact with airlines to provide more options and other destinations and we are doing everything possible to offset any impact by this decision.”

Without elaborating, Karousos said there will be significant announcements concerning air connectivity in the coming days.

Furthermore, according to Cyprus airports, Cyprus expected 20 flights per week in March, to and from Russia, corresponding to roughly 6% to 6.5% of total air traffic, and flights were expected to rise to 12% of total flights in April.