Larnaca International Airport

Larnaca International is the main airport of the Republic of Cyprus and one of the most traffic-dense airports per capita in the European Union, serving an island of just 1.3M residents with nearly 10M passenger movements in 2024 — a ratio driven entirely by foreign leisure demand and by LCA's role as the sole main air gateway to the country since Nicosia International was closed in 1974 after the island's partition. The airport sits on the eastern shore of Larnaca Bay at sea level (8 ft / 2 m elevation), 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of Larnaca city. The carrier mix is one of the most fragmented in Europe: 70 airlines operate 181 scheduled routes to 90 destinations, with no single airline dominant. Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, Jet2, and TUI Airways anchor the low-cost and leisure tiers; Aegean, Cyprus Airways, Transavia, and Lufthansa Group carriers handle the scheduled European network; and Emirates, Gulf Air, and Qatar Airways provide one-stop long-haul coverage through their Gulf hubs. Direct links reach all major European capitals and leisure markets, plus Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and the Gulf. A single 9,823 ft (2,995 m) asphalt runway (04/22) is oriented along the coastline and feeds a modern terminal opened in 2009 under a BOT concession operated by Hermes Airports, which also runs Paphos (PFO). LCA's geography is strategically distinctive: it lies under 350 km (217 mi) from Beirut, Damascus, Tel Aviv, and Amman, making it a regular alternate and ETOPS suitability point for eastern Mediterranean operations, and it has repeatedly played a humanitarian role as an evacuation hub during regional conflicts.