Cyprus airport traffic highest on record in first seven months of 2024

The Transport Ministry on Tuesday reported a slight increase in passenger traffic at Cyprus’ Larnaca and Paphos airports for July 2024.

However, the situation looks better when considering the entirety of the year leading up to July.

Specifically, a total of 1,496,715 passengers passed through Cyprus’ two international airports during the month of July alone.

This represents a 1.45 per cent increase when compared to the same period during the previous year.

The primary markets contributing to this growth include the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland, Israel, and Germany.

Additionally, the ministry reported that passenger traffic for the January to July period reached its highest level on record, marking a 4.42 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

The number of flights operated at the two airports also experienced growth, with a 2.8 per cent increase being recorded, bringing the total to 10,226 for July 2024.

Global passenger demand grows

Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has also released its latest data on global passenger demand for June 2024, revealing significant growth across several key metrics.

Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), increased by 9.1 per cent compared to June 2023.

This rise was supported by a corresponding 8.5 per cent increase in total capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASK).

As a result, the load factor—indicative of how efficiently airlines are filling their seats—rose to 85 per cent, marking a 0.5 percentage point improvement over the same month last year.

International travel showed particularly strong performance, with demand up 12.3 per cent compared to June 2023.

Moreover, capacity for international flights also increased by 12.7 per cent year-on-year.

However, the load factor for international routes decreased slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 85.0 per cent.

On the domestic front, passenger demand grew by 4.3 per cent year-on-year.

Domestic capacity saw a more modest increase of 2.1 per cent, but the load factor improved significantly by 1.7 percentage points, reaching 85.0 per cent.

“Demand grew across all regions as the peak Northern summer travel season began in June. And with overall capacity growth lagging demand we saw a very strong average load factor of 85 per cent achieved in both domestic and international operations,” said IATA director general Willie Walsh.

“Operating with such high load factors is both good and challenging. It makes it even more important for all the stakeholders to operate with equal levels of efficiency to minimise delays and get travellers to their destinations on schedule,” Walsh added.