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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Larnaca International Airport

Larnaca International Airport – Glafcos Clerides (IATA: LCA, ICAO: LCLK) is an international airport located 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of Larnaca, Cyprus. Larnaca International Airport is Cyprus' main international gateway and the larger of the two commercial airports in the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, the other being Paphos International Airport on the island's southwestern coast. The airport was given its current name in July 2016, in honour of former President of Cyprus (1993 – 2003) Glafcos Clerides.

History

Larnaca Airport was hastily developed towards the end of 1974 after the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey on 20 July of the same year, which forced the closure of the Nicosia International Airport. The site on which it was built (near the Larnaca Salt Lake) had been previously used as an airfield in the 1930s and, subsequently, as a military installation by British forces. Larnaca International opened on 8 February 1975, with only limited infrastructure facilities and a prefabricated set of buildings comprising separate halls for departures and arrivals. The first airlines to use the new airport were Cyprus Airways, using Viscount 800s leased from British Midland, and Olympic Airways, using NAMC YS-11s. Initially, the runway at Larnaca International was too short for jet aircraft.

Operations

The status of Cyprus as a major tourist destination means that air traffic has steadily risen to over 5 million passengers a year. This is double the capacity the airport was first designed for. For this reason, a tender was put out in 1998 to develop the airport further and increase its capacity (see below). Already completed elements of the expansion include a new control tower, fire station, runway extension, and additional administrative offices. The surrounding road network was improved by upgrading the B4 road; a new junction has been constructed near the new terminal. The new terminal was built some 500–700 m (1,600–2,300 ft) west of the old terminal, adjacent to the new control tower, with new aprons and jetways. The old terminal building is slated to be partially demolished and refurbished as a cargo centre, and is currently used as a private terminal for visiting heads of state, other VIPs, and private aircraft operators.

The airport's geographic location in-between Europe, Africa, Russia and the Middle East facilitates it as an airline hub for traffic and flight operations between these locations. It currently holds domestic, regional and international passenger and cargo services by over 50 airlines. Notably, Gulf Air used to provide a non-stop service to New York-JFK twice a week.

Romanian low-cost carrier Blue Air announced the closure of their Larnaca base in September 2020.

Facilities

The airport has one primary state-of-the-art passenger terminal. Departures are accommodated on the upper level, while arrivals are accommodated at the ground level. The old terminal was renovated and is privately operated by Skylink Services Ltd who manage and operate a “VIP terminal", which is used for executive aircraft and for visiting heads of state, and other non commercial aircraft. The airport utilises a single large apron for all passenger aircraft. The concept architectural design of the passenger terminal was developed by French architects at Aéroports de Paris (ADP) with Sofréavia in France.

A €650 million upgrade of the Larnaca and Paphos airports was completed in 2006. The international tender was won by Hermes Airports, a French-led group. The consortium is made up of Bouygues Batiment International (22%) Egis Projects (20%), the Cyprus Trading Corporation (a local retail group-10%), Iacovou Brothers (a local contractor-10%), Hellenic Mining (10%), Vancouver Airport Services (10%), Ireland's Dublin Airport Authority (Aer Rianta International) (10%), Charilaos Apostolides (a local construction company-5%) and Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (3%). Hermes Airports built new passenger terminals and plans to extend the runways at both airports under a 25-year concession.

A new terminal building opened on 7 November 2009. It has 16 jetways (boarding bridges), 67 check-in counters, 8 self check-in kiosks, 48 departure gates, and 2,450 parking spots. The new terminal can handle 7.5 million passengers per year. Infrastructure also features a large engineering hangar, a cargo terminal, and separate facilities for fuelling and provisioning light aircraft. There is a second, smaller apron where cargo aircraft and private aircraft are often parked. There are also spaces for smaller aircraft for flying schools and privately owned aircraft separate from the main two aprons.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Larnaca:

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Athens, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki
Seasonal charter: Yerevan
Air Serbia Belgrade
airBaltic Riga
Animawings Bucharest–Otopeni (resumes 15 September 2024)
Arkia Tel Aviv
Seasonal: Haifa
Austrian Airlines Vienna
Avion Express Seasonal charter: Vilnius
BH Air Seasonal charter: Burgas, Skopje, Sofia
Bluebird Airways Tel Aviv
Braathens International Airways Seasonal charter: Bergen, Billund, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stavanger, Stockholm–Arlanda, Trondheim, Umeå
British Airways London–Gatwick (resumes 4 November 2024), London–Heathrow
Bulgaria Air Seasonal: Sofia
Buzz Seasonal charter: Katowice, Poznań, Warsaw–Chopin, Wrocław
Chair Airlines Seasonal: Zürich
Condor Seasonal: Zürich
Corendon Airlines Europe Seasonal: Tel Aviv
Cyprus Airways Athens, Beirut, Brussels, Dubai–International, Milan–Malpensa, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Rome–Fiumicino, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Zürich
Seasonal: Alexandroupoli (begins 16 July 2024), Barcelona (begins 3 July 2024), Heraklion, Preveza/Lefkada, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos
Seasonal charter: Bergamo, Bratislava, Piešťany
easyJet Amsterdam (begins 27 October 2024), Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin, Liverpool, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Seasonal: Belfast–International, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Milan–Malpensa, Nantes (begins 30 June 2024)
Edelweiss Air Zürich
Egyptair Cairo
El Al Tel Aviv
Emirates Dubai–International, Malta
Enter Air Seasonal: Gdańsk
Seasonal charter: Katowice, Poznań, Warsaw–Chopin
Eurowings Düsseldorf
Seasonal: Berlin, Cologne/Bonn, Graz, Hamburg, Prague, Salzburg, Stockholm–Arlanda, Stuttgart
Finnair Helsinki
FlyOne Yerevan
Seasonal: Chişinău
Georgian Airways Tbilisi
Gulf Air Athens, Bahrain
Helvetic Airways Seasonal: Bern, Zürich
Heston Airlines Seasonal charter: Tallinn
HiSky Seasonal charter: Bucharest–Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca
Israir Airlines Tel Aviv
Seasonal: Haifa
Jazeera Airways Seasonal: Kuwait City
Jet2.com Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Jettime Seasonal charter: Aalborg, Billund, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Luleå, Malmö, Norrköping, Örebro, Oslo, Växjö
LOT Polish Airlines Seasonal charter: Katowice
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich
Middle East Airlines Beirut
Neos Seasonal: Tel Aviv
Norwegian Air Shuttle Oslo, Stockholm–Arlanda
Seasonal: Copenhagen, Helsinki
Seasonal charter: Trondheim
Qatar Airways Doha
Royal Jordanian Amman–Queen Alia
Ryanair Vienna
Scandinavian Airlines Oslo
Seasonal: Copenhagen, Stockholm–Arlanda
Seasonal charter: Bergen, Gothenburg
Sky Express Athens, Thessaloniki
Seasonal : Heraklion
SmartLynx Airlines Seasonal charter: Tallinn
Smartwings Seasonal: Bratislava, Brno Košice, Prague
Sun d'Or Seasonal: Tel Aviv
Sunclass Airlines Seasonal charter: Billund, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Malmö, Norrköping, Oslo, Sandefjord, Stockholm–Arlanda, Växjö
Swiss International Air Lines Seasonal: Geneva
Transavia Amsterdam
Seasonal: Paris–Orly
TUI Airways Seasonal: Belfast–International, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin, East Midlands, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
TUI fly Belgium Seasonal: Brussels
TUI fly Deutschland Seasonal: Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover
TUI fly Nordic Seasonal charter: Billund, Gothenburg, Norrköping, Stockholm–Arlanda
Tus Airways Heraklion, Tel Aviv
Seasonal: Bratislava, Chania, Corfu, Kefalonia, Preveza/Lefkada, Rhodes (begins 9 July 2024)
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, Athens, Beauvais, Belgrade, Bucharest–Otopeni, Budapest, Debrecen, Gdańsk, Iași, Katowice, Kraków, Kutaisi, London–Gatwick, London–Luton, Milan–Malpensa (begins 9 September 2024), Prague, Rome–Fiumicino, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw–Chopin, Warsaw–Radom, Wrocław, Yerevan
Seasonal: Cluj-Napoca

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
CAL Cargo Air Lines Atlanta, Liège, New York–JFK, Tel Aviv
Challenge Airlines Liège, Tel Aviv
DHL Aviation Brescia, Leipzig/Halle, Milan–Malpensa, Pisa, Venice
EgyptAir Cargo Cairo, Ostend/Bruges
FedEx Express Athens, Liège, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Rome–Fiumicino
Lufthansa Cargo Athens, Frankfurt, Milan–Malpensa
Poste Air Cargo Milan–Malpensa, Rome–Fiumicino, Tel Aviv
Royal Jordanian Cargo Amman–Queen Alia, Liège, Maastricht/Aachen
Swiftair Athens
UPS Airlines Cologne/Bonn, Istanbul, Tel Aviv

Statistics

LCA check-in area
LCA departure gate area
LCA entrance
Annual passenger traffic at LCA airport. See Wikidata query.
Number of passengers Percentage change
2006 4,927,986
2007 5,284,159 Increase07.2%
2008 5,488,319 Increase03.8%
2009 5,169,224 Decrease05.8%
2010 5,367,724 Increase03.8%
2011 5,507,552 Increase02.6%
2012 5,166,224 Decrease06.1%
2013 4,863,577 Decrease05.8%
2014 5,247,291 Increase07.8%
2015 5,330,914 Increase01.5%
2016 6,637,692 Increase24.5%
2017 7,734,290 Increase16.5%
2018 8,067,037 Increase04.3%
2019 8,229,346 Increase02.0%
2020 1,679,816 Decrease79.6%
2021 3,592,011 Increase113.4%
2022 6,037,053 Increase68%
2023 8,073,932 Increase33.7%

Access

The airport can be reached by car, taxi and public transport system. There is a shuttle bus system from/to Limassol, Nicosia, Protaras, Paralimni and Ayia Napa. Local buses are available at the airport to various locations in Larnaca.

Security incidents and accidents

  • In order to test the preparedness and observance of the members of the private company Hermes Airports in charge of control duties, a secret exercise was conducted at Larnaca International Airport on 9 March 2023, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., by two police officers posing as civilian passengers who successfully passed through the security check with a dummy explosive device and prohibited dangerous materials, such as knives, without being detected. The exercise took place after the police passport control for exit from the country, where private company officers carry out a physical check as a complementary check. The operation was ordered by the police director of airport security without informing the civil aviation authority or the airport operator.

See also