Aegean Airlines yesterday announced the launch of new routes between Larnaca, Paris and six Greek destinations this summer.
The new Paris route will run three times a week, on Monday, Thursday and Saturday from June 9 and establish Larnaca airport as a base for three of Aegean’s A320s. The aircraft will depart from Larnaca at 3:45pm and return from Charles de Gaulle Airport at 8.15pm.
The new Greek destinations are Heraklion, Rhodes, Mykonos, Chania, Kos and Santorini, bringing the total to eight.
Heraklion flights are already underway, while the other five are scheduled to start on June 20 and 21, running throughout the summer season and ending on September 5.
Aegean’s vice chairman Eftychios Vassilakis said yesterday: "We considered that our presence in Cyprus had matured enough to offer not only direct flights to eight destinations in Greece but for the first time to two major European destinations, London and Paris.”
Asked why Aegean chose Cyprus, Vassilakis said: “Our decision to establish a base in Cyprus was reached mainly because of the improved facilities and quality of operations at the airport following the creation of the new Larnaca airport, which has now been operating for one and a half years”.
He the airline was interested to work with local authorities to open up other routes in Europe and the Middle East.
He said: "Our goal is to serve Cyprus with dedication to quality which we believe characterises our company, in order to cover the needs of the island and contribute to an increase in tourism”.
Hermes Airports CEO Alfred van der Meer welcomed the start of Larnaca to London and Paris flights, which is “another link that further strengthens the presence of a Greek airline in Cyprus and brings Cypriot passengers even closer to Aegean.”
Van der Meer said: “I am sure that both the Cypriot and foreign passengers will welcome the new flights offered by Aegean to and from Cyprus”.
The flights will be operated with a new 168 seat Airbus A320 and offer business and economy class tickets.
Since March 27, Aegean has run daily flights from Larnaca to Heathrow, departing at 8:15am.
Next month Aegean will mark its seventh year of operations in Cyprus, which started with flights from Athens and Thessaloniki.
In that time 2.5 million passengers have flown to and from Larnaca airport, and in 2010 alone there were 3,400 scheduled flights. In total 4,800 flights, offering 900,000 seats, are scheduled for 2011, representing a 41 per cent increase compared to 2010.
source: phantis
