KAROUSOS: The airports are ready to receive flights and tourists in May

Larnaca and Paphos airports are ready to receive from mid-May, an increased number of flights and thousands of passengers, said to KYPE the Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Giannis Karousos.

He added that "Cyprus airports are ready to serve a large number of passengers and for this purpose several meetings were held and the necessary preparation was made to ensure that the flow of passengers will be as good as possible. "Several things have changed compared to last year, in order to facilitate the passengers so that from the moment of their disembarkation there is less inconvenience and all the necessary checks are done faster".

He added that "together with the Ministry of Innovation, the cyprusflypass is also being improved in order to speed up the specific process. For example, on Sunday a flight that arrived at Larnaca airport carrying 112 passengers went through the coronavirus test process on average, within 11 seconds for each person ".

By the end of March, he continued, "flights from 50-60 per week will reach 160, while from April we will reach 240. We expect tourists in Cyprus from mid-May, since the months of March and April will be pilot, so to make sure that all the protocols of the Republic work properly ".

Answering a relevant question, the Minister of Transport said that "there is interest in the descent of tourists to Cyprus from Israel and other Arab countries. At the same time, there is increased interest from airlines that want to strengthen their base in Larnaca with more planes and flights, because they believe that based on the protocol that Cyprus has, it offers stability to their passengers and to the companies themselves, something they want. to take advantage ".

He also stated that "this year there will be flights from Cyprus to various destinations in European Union countries and elsewhere, which we did not have until today or where there was insufficient connectivity. Among other destinations, there will be flights from Cyprus to France ".

To another question, Giannis Karousos answered that "after May 1 and especially after May 15, when tourists from the United Kingdom will start arriving in Cyprus, there will be increased passenger traffic. That is why there are constant teleconferences with all the airlines and we see that there is a lot of increased interest ".

Asked about the issue of the "green certificate", the Minister of Transport replied that "there is full coordination with the relevant Ministries, we have submitted our positions as the Republic of Cyprus on this issue and there is a consultation at European Commission level. "Cyprus is in favor of the 'green certificate' since we have been supporting its implementation for a long time and in fact we have said several times that other European countries should use our own protocols as an example".

Cyprus, noted "was the first country that, in terms of travel, we used protocols in combination with country categorizations and laboratory analyzes. "Now, a year later, we see that several European countries are adopting our own protocols, which is a great honor for Cyprus, as it seemed that the right thing was done, something that is recognized at the level of the European Commission."

We expect the final decisions, concluded Giannis Karousos, since we believe that the "green certificate" will help the free movement of citizens in the European Union. This certificate will not exclude any citizen to travel, whether he was vaccinated or not, just in case he was not vaccinated he will have to follow some other criteria such as e.g. to test or have antibodies ".

However, he noted, "we expect that the issue with the 'green certificate' should be completed by the end of June so that it can be used by citizens who want to travel."