Larnaca International Airport

Larnaca International Airport – Glafcos Clerides[lower-alpha 1] (IATA: LCA, ICAO: LCLK) is an international airport located 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of Larnaca, Cyprus.[3] 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.

Larnaca International Airport

Διεθνής Αερολιμένας Λάρνακας
Summary
Owner/OperatorHermes Airports Ltd.
ServesLarnaca Limassol Nicosia Ayia Napa
LocationLarnaca
Hub for
Elevation AMSL3.35 m / 11 ft
Coordinates34°52′44″N 033°37′49″E
Websitewww.hermesairports.com
Map
LCA
Location within Cyprus
LCA
LCA (Europe)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
04/22 3,000 9,823 Asphalt
Statistics
Passengers (2019) 8,229,346
Aircraft movements (2011) 50,329
Cargo tonnage (2008) 37,529
Sources: Hermes Airports,[2] Cypriot AIP at EUROCONTROL[3]

The airport was given its current name in July 2016, in honour of former President of Cyprus (1993 – 2003) Glafcos Clerides.[4]

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,[5] 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.

On 19 February 1978, Larnaca Airport was the scene of the Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport: a 1-hour gun battle between Unit 777, an Egyptian military counter-terrorism force, who had raided Larnaca International, and the Cypriot National Guard.

The crisis had begun the previous day, when Youssef Sebai, editor of a prominent Egyptian newspaper and friend of Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, was assassinated at the Nicosia Hilton hotel by two gunmen as he was preparing to address the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) conference being held at the hotel. The gunmen, a Jordanian and a Kuwaiti, opposed to the Sadat regime, took 50 hostages among the conference attendees, including two representatives of the PLO who happened to be attending the conference. Non-Arab delegates and women were released shortly. Yasser Arafat, with the Cypriot president's agreement, dispatched an unarmed force of 16 to assist with negotiations and any possible rescue operation.

Through negotiations with the Cypriot government, the two attackers were allowed to board a plane to escape with their 15 remaining hostages, including the two PLO hostages. They forced the plane to approach several countries including Libya and Syria but each time their request to land was refused, so after refueling in Djibouti, the plane was forced to return to Larnaca Airport. Egypt then dispatched its entire antiterrorist squad aboard a C-130 Hercules to deal with the hijacking; however, they did so without the knowledge or consent of the Cypriot government.

On landing in Larnaca, the commandos launched an all-out assault on the DC-8, even as Cypriot negotiators had secured the hostage-takers' surrender. Cypriot President Spyros Kyprianou and other senior officials observing the events on site were forced to retreat from the airport control tower after it was hit by bullets. Eventually the Egyptian commandos surrendered to the Cypriot forces. The two hijackers were persuaded by the British pilots to give up. The hostages exited the aircraft unharmed once the shooting was over. The Cypriots counted eight wounded. 15 members of the 74-man Egyptian Unit 777 died. President Kyprianou offered reconciliation and apologies, but maintained that Cyprus could not have allowed the Egyptians to act. Egypt and Cyprus each withdrew their diplomatic missions, and frosty relations between the two countries persisted for some time. The two hijackers were condemned to death by a Cypriot court, but the sentence was commuted by Kyprianou and the hijackers released.[6][7][8][9]

Operations
LCA entrance

The status of Cyprus as a major tourist destination means that air traffic has steadily risen to over 5 million passengers a year.[10] 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 and by completing the A3 Motorway. 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, 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.[11][12][13][14] It currently holds domestic, regional and international passenger and cargo services by over 30 airlines.[15] Notably, Gulf Air used to provide a non-stop service to New York-JFK twice a week.[16]

Facilities
LCA check-in area
LCA departure gate area

The airport has one primary state-of-the-art passenger terminal. Departures are accommodated on the upper level, while arrivals at the ground level. The old terminal serves as a "VIP terminal", which is used for visiting heads of state, some private aviation, and for cargo. 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.[17] 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.[18] 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:[19]

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines[20] Athens, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki
Seasonal: Chania, Heraklion, Kos, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini
Aeroflot Moscow–Sheremetyevo, St. Petersburg
Air Moldova Seasonal: Chişinău
Air Serbia Belgrade
airBaltic Riga
Aircompany Armenia Seasonal charter: Yerevan[21][22]
AirExplore Seasonal charter: Košice[23]
Alitalia Seasonal: Rome–Fiumicino
Alrosa Seasonal charter: Mineralnye Vody[24]
Arkia Tel Aviv
ASL Airlines France Seasonal charter: Paris–Charles de Gaulle[25]
Austrian Airlines Vienna
Azur Air Seasonal charter: Moscow–Vnukovo,[26] St. Petersburg[27]
Belavia Minsk
Blue Air[28] Athens, Bacău (begins 4 October 2020),[29] Bucharest, Thessaloniki
Bluebird Airways[30] Seasonal: Tel Aviv
British Airways London–Heathrow
Seasonal: London–Gatwick
Bulgaria Air Sofia
Buzz Seasonal charter: Katowice,[31] Poznań[31]
Chair Airlines Seasonal: Zürich
Condor Seasonal: Frankfurt
Corendon Airlines Seasonal charter: Tel Aviv[32]
Cyprus Airways[33] Athens, Heraklion, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki
Seasonal: Geneva, Rhodes, Skiathos, Zürich
easyJet Berlin–Schönefeld, Bristol, Liverpool, London–Gatwick, Milan–Malpensa
Seasonal: Basel/Mulhouse
Edelweiss Air Zürich
EgyptAir Cairo
El Al Tel Aviv
Emirates Dubai–International, Malta
Enter Air Seasonal charter: Warsaw–Chopin[31]
Eurowings[34] Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf (begins 31 October 2020),[35] Hamburg (begins 5 September 2020),[36] Stuttgart
Gulf Air[37] Bahrain
Israir Airlines Haifa, Tel Aviv
Jet2.com London–Stansted
Seasonal: Belfast–International (begins 2 May 2021),[38] Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Jordan Aviation[39] Amman–Queen Alia
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw–Chopin
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich
Mahan Air Seasonal charter: Tehran–Imam Khomeini[40]
Middle East Airlines Beirut
Nordwind Airlines Seasonal: Moscow–Sheremetyevo
Norwegian Air Shuttle Oslo–Gardermoen, Stockholm–Arlanda
Seasonal: Copenhagen, Helsinki
Seasonal charter: Bergen,[41] London–Gatwick,[42] Luleå,[43] Stavanger[44]
Pobeda Moscow–Vnukovo
Qatar Airways Doha
Qeshm Airlines Seasonal charter: Tehran–Imam Khomeini[45]
Red Wings Airlines Seasonal charter: Kazan,[26] Mineralnye Vody,[26] Moscow–Domodedovo,[26] Nizhny Novgorod,[26] Rostov-on-Don,[26] Samara,[26] Tyumen,[26] Ufa,[26] Voronezh[26]
Rossiya Airlines Charter: Moscow–Vnukovo,[46] St. Petersburg[46]
Seasonal charter: Kazan,[46] Nizhny Novgorod,[46] Novosibirsk,[46] Perm,[46] Rostov-on-Don,[46] Samara,[46] Tyumen,[46] Ufa,[46] Voronezh,[46] Yekaterinburg[46]
Royal Jordanian Amman–Queen Alia
Ryanair[47] Brussels, Vienna
S7 Airlines[48] Moscow–Domodedovo
Seasonal: Novosibirsk
Scandinavian Airlines Seasonal charter: Bergen,[49] Copenhagen,[50] Gothenburg,[51] Kristiansand,[44] Oslo–Gardermoen,[52] Stockholm–Arlanda,[51] Trondheim,[44] Umeå[43]
SkyUp[53] Kiev–Boryspil
SmartLynx Airlines Seasonal charter: Tallinn[54]
Sunclass Airlines Seasonal charter: Billund,[55] Copenhagen,[55] Gothenburg,[56] Helsinki,[57] Malmö,[56] Oslo–Gardermoen,[58] Stockholm–Arlanda,[56] Växjö[56]
Swiss International Air Lines[59] Seasonal: Geneva
TAROM Seasonal: Bucharest
Transavia Amsterdam
TUI Airways[42] Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster/Sheffield, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
TUI fly Deutschland[60] Seasonal: Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover
TUI fly Nordic Seasonal charter: Gothenburg,[43] Oslo–Gardermoen,[44] Stockholm–Arlanda[43]
Ukraine International Airlines Kiev–Boryspil
Ural Airlines[61] Krasnodar, Moscow–Domodedovo
Seasonal: Mineralnye Vody, Yekaterinburg
Widerøe Seasonal charter: Bergen[62]
Windrose Airlines[63] Seasonal: Kiev–Boryspil
Wizz Air[64] Abu Dhabi (begins 3 October 2020),[65] Athens, Bacău (begins 30 October 2020),[66] Beauvais, Belgrade, Bergen, Billund, Budapest, Chişinău, Cluj-Napoca, Copenhagen, Doncaster/Sheffield (begins 25 October 2020),[67] Dortmund, Eindhoven, Gdańsk, Heraklion, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Katowice, Kiev–Zhuliany, Kraków, Kutaisi, London–Luton, Lviv, Memmingen, Prague, Salzburg, Skopje, Sofia, Suceava, Thessaloniki, Turku, Varna, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw–Chopin, Wrocław, Yerevan
Seasonal: Debrecen, Iași
Yamal Airlines Seasonal charter: Bryansk,[26] Surgut[26]

Cargo
AirlinesDestinations
ASL Airlines Belgium Athens, Bergamo, Liège
Bluebird Nordic Athens
CAL Cargo Air Lines Atlanta, Liège, New York–JFK, Tel Aviv–Ben Gurion
DHL Aviation Athens
Emirates SkyCargo[68] Dubai–International
Royal Jordanian Cargo Amman–Queen Alia, Athens
Swiftair Cologne/Bonn, Madrid, Malta

Statistics
Number of passengers[2] Percentage change
2006 4,927,986—
2007 5,284,15907.2%
2008 5,488,31903.8%
2009 5,169,22405.8%
2010 5,367,72403.8%
2011 5,507,55202.6%
2012 5,166,22406.1%
2013 4,863,57705.8%
2014 5,247,29107.8%
2015 5,330,91401.5%
2016 6,637,69224.5%
2017 7,734,29016.5%
2018 8,067,03704.3%
2019 8,229,34602.0%

Access

The airport can be reached by car, taxi and public transport system. There is a shuttle bus system from/to Limassol,[69] Nicosia, Protaras, Paralimni and Ayia Napa.[70] Local buses are available at the airport to various locations in Larnaca.

Incidents and accidents

Notes
  1. Greek: Διεθνής Aερολιμένας Λάρνακας (Diethnís Aeroliménas Lárnakas). Turkish: Larnaka Uluslararası Havaalanı).
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gollark: And you can't put programs on them without Apple hardware.
gollark: They have proprietary cables and stuff.
gollark: I would rather have "bugs" than Apple's software and sort of hardware lock in.

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