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 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 the 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.
Nowadays, Larnaca Airport is used as a hub by passengers travelling between Europe and the Middle East, though between 1994-1996 a twice-weekly Gulf Air flight provided non-stop service to New York JFK airport. 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. 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 concept architectural design of the passenger terminal was developed by French architects at Aéroports de Paris (ADP) with Sofréavia in France. Detail and Tender design was completed in Cyprus by 1998, with local architectural office Forum Architects and a large engineering team under the coordination of ADP.
The design was later used as a base for the BOT projects of both Larnaca and Pafos International Airports though significant changes were made mainly on "value engineering" grounds. A large amount of controversy spurred by the local media surrounded the granting of the contract when it was put out to tender.
A consortium led by BAA and Joannou & Paraskevaides (J&P) construction quickly pulled out when it did not receive assurances from the government of Cyprus that it would receive financial compensation in the event that direct flights were allowed between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the world. The contract was eventually hastily granted to the next best bidder, the French led 'Hermes' Consortium. This too, was not free of controversy, causing legal challenges by BAA and J&P, and adding further delays to a much needed project.
Facilities
The airport has one primary passenger terminal. Departures are accommodated on the upper level, while arrivals at the ground level. A second "VIP terminal" also exists, 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.
A €650m upgrade of the Larnaca and Paphos airports has been completed. 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, 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.
The second phase, to be completed in 2013, provides for the expansion of the new terminal to handle 9 million passengers a year, and for a 500 m (1,600 ft) runway extension. The design of the new 98,000 m2 (1,050,000 sq ft) terminal includes 16 boarding bridges.
Airlines And Destinations
Aegean Airlines: Athens, Beirut, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Thessaloniki
Seasonal: Heraklion, Kiev-Boryspil (begins 3 May 2016), Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini
Aeroflot: Moscow-Sheremetyevo
Aeroflot:
operated by Rossiya Airlines Seasonal: Saint Petersburg
Air Berlin: Zürich
Air Moldova: Chişinău
Air Serbia: Seasonal: Belgrade
airBaltic: Riga
Arkia: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Austrian Airlines: Vienna
Azur Air: Seasonal charter: Moscow-Domodedovo (begins 17 April 2016)
Belavia: Minsk
Blue Air: Athens, Bucharest, London-Luton (begins 25 April 2016), Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion (begins 19 May 2016), Thessaloniki
Seasonal charter: Chania, Corfu, Kavala, Milan-Linate (begins 13 July 2016), Preveza/Lefkada, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos, Zakynthos
Bravo Airways: Seasonal charter: Lviv (begins 30 April 2016)
British Airways: London-Heathrow
Bulgaria Air: Sofia
easyJet: Berlin-Schönefeld, Liverpool, London-Gatwick, Milan-Malpensa
easyJet: Switzerland Basel/Mulhouse
Edelweiss Air: Zürich
EgyptAir:
operated by EgyptAir Express Cairo
Ellinair: Thessaloniki (begins 21 April 2016)
Emirates: Athens, Dubai-International, Malta
Etihad Airways: Abu Dhabi
Georgian Airways: Seasonal charter: Yerevan
Germania: Munich, Stuttgart (begins 3 May 2016)
Germania Flug: Zürich (begins 29 April 2016)
Germanwings: Cologne/Bonn
Gulf Air: Bahrain
Helvetic Airways: Seasonal charter: Bern (begins 13 May 2016), Zürich
Israir Airlines: Seasonal charter: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion (resumes 14 April 2016)
Jet Time: Seasonal charter: Billund (begins 18 April 2016), Norrköping, Örebro
Jet2.com: Seasonal: East Midlands, Edinburgh (begins 25 May 2016), Glasgow-International, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
LOT Polish Airlines: Warsaw-Chopin
Lufthansa: Munich
Seasonal: Frankfurt
Mahan Air: Seasonal charter: Tehran-Imam Khomeini
Middle East Airlines Beirut
Monarch Airlines Birmingham, London-Gatwick, London-Luton
Seasonal: Leeds Bradford
Niki: Vienna
Nordwind Airlines: Seasonal charter: Kazan, Krasnodar (begins 1 May 2016), Mineralnye Vody (begins 29 April 2016), Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Rostov-on-Don (begins 30 April 2016), Saint Petersburg (begins 28 April 2016), Samara, Ufa, Volgograd (begins 2 May 2016), Voronezh
Norwegian Air Shuttle: London-Gatwick, Oslo–Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda
Seasonal: Copenhagen, Helsinki
Seasonal charter: Bergen, Stavanger
Novair:operated by Scandinavian Airlines Seasonal: Gothenburg-Landvetter, Oslo–Gardermoen (begins 14 May 2016), Stockholm-Arlanda
Pegas Fly: Seasonal charter: Krasnoyarsk (begins 6 May 2016), Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Yekaterinburg (begins 28 April 2016)
Pobeda Seasonal: Moscow-Vnukovo (begins 30 April 2016)
Qatar Airways: Doha
Qeshm Airlines: Seasonal charter: Tehran-Imam Khomeini
Rossiya Airlines: Charter: Moscow-Vnukovo, Saint Petersburg
Seasonal charter: Chelyabinsk (begins 2 May 2016), Kaliningrad (begins 23 May 2016), Kazan (begins 30 April 2016), Nizhny Novgorod (begins 24 April 2016), Novosibirsk (begins 24 April 2016), Omsk (begins 29 April 2016), Perm (begins 30 April 2016), Rostov-on-Don (begins 27 May 2016), Samara (begins 30 April 2016), Tyumen (begins 29 April 2016), Ufa (begins 29 April 2016), Yekaterinburg (begins 24 April 2016)
Royal Jordanian: Amman-Queen Alia
Ryanair: Brussels
S7 Airlines: Moscow-Domodedovo
Scandinavian Airlines: Seasonal charter: Bergen, Kristiansand, Luleå, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda, Trondheim, Umeå (begins 9 May 2016)
Small Planet Airlines: Seasonal charter: London-Gatwick, Manchester
SmartWings operated by Travel Service: Seasonal: Prague
TAROM: Bucharest
Thomas Cook Airlines: Seasonal: Belfast-International, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Glasgow-International, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted (begins 26 May 2016), Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia: Seasonal charter: Billund, Copenhagen, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Helsinki, Malmö, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda, Växjö
Thomson Airways: Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster (resumes 1 June 2016), East Midlands, Edinburgh (begins 4 May 2016), Exeter, Glasgow-International, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
Transavia: Seasonal: Amsterdam
Travel Service: Seasonal charter: Bratislava
TUIfly Nordic: Seasonal charter: Copenhagen, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Helsinki, Malmö, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda
Tus Airways: Haifa (begins 31 March 2016), Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Seasonal: Heraklion (begins 18 April 2016)
Ukraine International Airlines: Kiev-Boryspil
Up operated by El Al: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Ural Airlines: Krasnodar, Moscow-Domodedovo, Saint Petersburg (begins 27 April 2016)
Seasonal: Yekaterinburg
VIM Airlines: Seasonal charter: Moscow-Domodedovo (begins 28 April 2016)
Vueling: Seasonal: Barcelona, Rome-Fiumicino
Windrose Airlines: Seasonal: Kiev-Boryspil (begins 30 April 2016), Odessa (begins 30 April 2016)
Wizz Air: Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Iași (begins 1 July 2016), Katowice, Kiev-Zhulyany, Kutaisi (begins 24 September 2016),Sofia, Vilnius, Warsaw-Chopin
Yamal Airlines: Seasonal charter: Moscow-Domodedovo
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