New Terminal Improves Flights to Paphos
Author: Dan Williams
Paphos airport in Cyprus has received its fair share of critics over the years. In short the airport was not fit for purpose following an explosion of tourism traffic over the past few years. An upgrade to the facilities provided at Paphos airport were long overdue but the negotiation of a new contract to run all of the airports in Cyprus was holding things up.
Once that new 25 year contract was awarded to Hermes Airports in 2006, new developments of both Paphos, and later Larnaca airport, could go ahead. The new terminal at Paphos was the first to be completed and has brought a breath of fresh air to the facilities and travellers using the airport can now say goodbye to all the issues that irritated them in the past.
Amongst the issues that affected passengers at Paphos were facilities that were not designed to cope with the levels of traffic passing through the airport. It only had two luggage 2 carousels. Also many flights were scheduled to use the airport on Wednesday, the preferred changeover day for resorts on the island. This placed undue strain on the terminal at Paphos. Travellers were often forced to queue up outside the terminal building in the heat of the day and were frequently subjected to queues lasting over 2 hours. Obviously this situation could not continue and changes to spread flight arrivals throughout the week and extend the capacity of the terminal were planned.
The interior of the new terminal is of simple but clean construction and has been designed to extend the capacity of the airport by fifty per cent. The development has cost $160million and has also improved the retail facilities which were fairly basic in the old terminal. The runway at Paphos airport has also been extended which allows larger planes such as the Airbus A321 and Boeing 747-400 to use the airport. Companies currently flying to Paphos include British Airways, FlyThomasCook and easyJet. An additional $485million is due to be spent on other improvements primarily at Larnaca airport.
New developments for the main airport on Cyprus at Larnaca are already under construction and include a larger three-storey terminal building which should be open for use in June 2009. Larnaca will also benefit from a new control tower, a new fire station and a runway extension to 2980m.
The new terminal at Paphos, the second airport of Cyprus, took two years to complete and was opened on time in November 2008. The first day of operation was voted a huge success. Over 7 million passengers travelled through the airports on Cyprus in 2008. August was the busiest period with over 1 million passengers using the two main airports. Facilities at Paphos now include 20 check-in desks, 5 gates, 3 baggage reclaim carousels, 800 car-park spaces and stands for 14 aircraft.
The infrastructure around Paphos airport is also receiving new investment and a completely new 4 lane highway linking the airport to the town of Paphos 10 miles away is under construction and will significantly relieve congestion on the existing route between the airport and the town.
Although the tourism industry in the west of Cyprus has grown rapidly in recent years and the area around Paphos has been transformed from a sleepy fishing village into one of the islands favourite resorts, there may be some issues ahead that will slow the planned growth. First the general worldwide slowdown of the major economies is bound to have an impact, but joining the Eurozone and adopting the Euro as a currency could have been a devil in disguise. The drop in the value of the pound against the Euro could discourage some UK travellers and will certainly slowdown property investment on the island.
About the Author - If you enjoyed reading about the improvements at Paphos, look up more of Dan Williams' reports and compare cheap flights to Paphos on the FlyThomasCook website.