Since the borders opened between the north and south of the island, the option of travelling into either of the two airports in the south, Larnaca and Paphos, has steadily gained popularity.
The main reasons are sometimes cheaper flights, as most major airlines can be very competitive with their pricing, and the fact that there is no obligatory stop-over in Turkey. From most European destinations it is only a 4 or 5 hour journey time to the south, whereas it would be a 5 or 6 hour journey time to the north because of the stop over in Turkey.
However, there is also the issue of having arrived into Larnaca or Paphos and then again adding on journey time to get to your destination in the north, with taxi fares and border crossings as additional expenditure and inconvenience. Nonetheless, many feel that it’s a more viable option for them, and luckily there is plenty of choice for those who find it a more relaxing route to take to North Cyprus. We will list a few of the airlines serving south Cyprus for you, to give you an idea of travel options.
Cyprus Airways is the official state carrier for south Cyprus serving both Larnaca and Paphos airports, and it offers relatively low fares flying in from all the UK’s London airports and both Manchester and Birmingham in the UK, as well as other major capital cities in the Middle East and mainland Europe.
British Airways can often be cheap when booking well in advance, with flights departing from all London airports into both Larnaca and Paphos. In the summer time they do add on other UK airports, but the norm seems to be internal flights into London and onwards from there.
Easyjet, the budget airline, do provide flights but only from mid season the last time we looked, and flights didn’t start until the end of March. They usually operate flights between London Gatwick and Larnaca and are obviously pretty cheap being a budget airline! Booking well in advance is the process to get the best fare available.
That’s it for our round-up of our choice of airlines serving the south of the island. For general information on flights into North Cyprus as well as information on Ercan Airport please check our related articles.
