It is expected that in the second fortnight of the month there will be increased mobility at airports due to the Christmas holidays and the descent of students.
Last Christmas may have been a pandemic, but it looks like this year will be much better, despite the fact that the "Omicron" mutation is galloping. After two years of stagnation in airplanes and tourism, it is time for the sector to recover. It is a fact that the economy due to the pandemic has remained stagnant, since its important pillar is tourism, something we did not have clearly until 2020. This year is the second Christmas for our country in the shadow of the pandemic, but with the vaccination program runs smoothly, a sense of optimism prevails.
Passenger traffic in 2021
It seems that already from the first month of 2021 the passenger traffic had an upward course, since the arrivals on the island reached 19.576, while the departures 24.415. In view of the new measures taken in February in Cyprus, passenger traffic decreased in terms of arrivals at 17.179 and departures at 16.007. However, this did not deter tourists and Cypriots who wanted to travel, increasing the numbers rapidly in the coming months. Indicatively, in March the arrivals amounted to 25.335 and the departures to 21.704, while in April the arrivals reached 60.440 and the departures 48.171. Arrivals doubled in May to 137.087 and departures to 113.386.
The start of summer in June brought with it 236.177 arrivals and 209.151 departures, while July had 380.016 arrivals and 355.447 departures. In August, the last month of summer, during which most tourists and Cypriots wish to spend their holidays, the number of arrivals on our island increased to 437.866, while the departures in the same month moved around 448.548. The experience of the recent summer season has shown that people want to travel and the holidays are high on their wish list, as the pandemic is on a controlled course.
The autumn brought with it a slight decrease in arrivals on the island, as they reached 428.548, while departures 410.351. In October and last month, for which the Statistical Service provides data, arrivals amounted to 474.140 and departures to 490.049.
Christmas trips under the shadow of "Omicron"
Moreover, as Hermes Airports, the managing company of the island's two international airports, explains, "there seems to be a substantial recovery in recent months, although the uncertainty of recent weeks with the appearance of the 'Omicron' mutation has created a numbness affecting them. completeness indicators, at least for the first ten days of December ".
However, after two years and with many challenges due to the pandemic and with air traffic having reached unprecedented levels, in recent months there seems to be a substantial recovery. Hermes Airports emphasizes that "we do not have -currently- flight cancellations, while we expect that in the second fortnight of the month there will be an increased mobility due to the Christmas holidays and the descent of students, without being able to say with certainty number of flights, because that changes day by day ".
The company report, however, for 2021 until the beginning of December, shows the passenger traffic to reach 4.790.703 passengers, which corresponds to 45% of 2019 (for the same period). This shows that we still have a long way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels. In terms of the best performance this year, it was recorded in October this year with 951.820 passengers, with the most flights coming from the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Israel and Poland. At the same time, it is noteworthy that last summer, 50 airlines flew from Cyprus, out of the 70 that flew in 2019, while most of them will continue to fly to our country during the winter months.
Hermes Airports concluded that "we are optimistic that the new mutation will not act as a barrier and that the booking machines will move forward for the new year".
The new categorization of countries
The increased cases around the world and the "Omicron" mutation are coming again to reclassify the countries in green, orange and red zone.
The new categorization of spaces is as follows:
Red List countries (high risk countries) are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg , Malta, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Andorra, Monaco, the Vatican City and San Marino, Switzerland, the Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, Egypt, Armenia, Georgia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Jordan, Belarus, Lebanon, South Korea, Oman, Ukraine, Peru, Russia and Serbia.
Orange Country (with potentially low risk) is Greece from the EU and from third countries Argentina, Australia, Japan, Israel, Canada, Qatar, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Colombia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Rwanda and Chile.
Green countries (low risk countries) are the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.
However, due to the "Omicron" mutation, which was initially located in Botswana and signaled an alarm due to the large number of mutations it carries, the Ministry of Health informed that from November 26 the entry and entry into the KD of any The last 14 days before his arrival in the Republic he passed through the territory of South Africa, Lesotho, the Kingdom of Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Botswana.