Larnaka International Airport Posts Double-Digit Growth as Expansion and Network Development Accelerate

Our Route Opportunities feature explores the latest unserved and underserved routes promoted through Routes 360, providing supporting information for airline network planners to consider and capitalize on.

Larnaka International Airport (LCA), Cyprus’ primary aviation gateway, continued its post-pandemic growth trajectory in 2025, handling 9.9 million passengers—an increase of 15% year over year— and 21% increase compared to pre-pandemic levels, despite ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty. The airport, managed and operated by Hermes Airports, maintained stable operations throughout the year, underlining the resilience of Cyprus’ aviation market. This strong performance has placed LCA among the shortlisted airports for the Routes Europe Awards 2026 in the 5–20 million passengers category.

Passenger growth is occurring alongside the backdrop of a major infrastructure upgrade. The second phase of LCA’s expansion program is now underway. Once delivered, the project will increase the airport’s annual capacity to 12.5 million passengers, providing room for continued traffic growth.

2026 began with strong momentum, continuing throughout the first months of the year. However, recent geopolitical developments rapidly reshaped market conditions, affecting passenger traffic and forward bookings. Hermes Airports response was immediate, engaging in continuous communication with airline partners and working closely with local stakeholders to strengthen the confidence in the destination. At the same time, a targeted incentive scheme was introduced to support weakened load factors and the capacity already planned for Larnaka Airport, prior to these developments.

Wizz Air continues operating out of Larnaka the recently added routes Venice, Bratislava, Timisoara and Gyumri on a year-round basis, whereas it plans to relaunch Athens, Tirana, Skopje, Suceava, Varna, Tuzla and Tirgu Mures before the end of the summer season. Moreover, it has recently announced the launch of a new direct route Larnaka-Madrid, following the recent successful launch of Barcelona to Larnaka, further enhancing Cyprus’ year-round air connectivity with Spain.

Discover Airlines has also entered the Cyprus market, operating year-round services to both Frankfurt and Munich. Aegean Airlines recently expanded its Cypriot footprint, launching a new direct route to Brussels in December 2025 with up to 5 weekly frequencies.

Air Astana will enter the Cyprus market in summer 2026, marking the airport’s first long-haul operation, with the launch of two seasonal routes connecting Larnaka with Kazakhstan, specifically Astana and Almaty, operating between June and August.

With the infrastructure and demand to handle passenger growth, LCA has uploaded multiple route opportunities to its profile to close air connectivity gaps.

Opportunities include:

Germany: Germany remains one of Cyprus’ top five source markets, with opportunities extending beyond Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. Several regional airports—including Hamburg and Stuttgart—are currently served on a seasonal basis only, while others such as Cologne, Nuremberg and Bremen remain unserved. Demand data shows that Cyprus has become increasingly popular among German travelers during shoulder and winter seasons, suggesting potential for extended or year-round services.

Italy: Italy is one of the developing markets for Cyprus during the last years. In total more than 100,000 total passengers travelled indirectly during the year between the two countries with Bologna positioned high on the list as the fourth most popular unserved destination.

Ireland: LCA seeks to serve Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, with indirect demand reaching 17,000 passengers annually.

Portugal: More than 20,000 passengers currently travel indirectly between the two countries. Lisbon accounts for roughly 12,000 of these passengers, followed by Porto with more than 7,000. Direct flights could stimulate both leisure and VFR traffic while offering one-stop connectivity between Cyprus and Latin America via Lisbon.

India: The traffic between Larnaka and India has developed significantly during the last few years, with currently more than 40,000 total passengers travelling indirect annually. Delhi is the largest single market, accounting for around 24,000 passengers, largely inbound for leisure but also business with significant progress achieved in the field of corporate collaboration between Cyprus and India during the last few years.

Unserved:

• Dublin Airport (DUB)
• Tallinn Airport (TLL)
• Lisbon Airport (LIS)
• Porto Airport (OPO)
• Zagreb Airport (ZAG)
• Bologna Airport (BLQ)
• Lyon Airport (LYS) 
• Nantes Atlantique Airport (NTE)
• Albrecht Dürer Airport Nuremberg (NUE)
• Bremen Airport (BRE)
• Dresden Airport (DRS)
• Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)
• Delhi International Airport (DEL)

Underserved:

• Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
• Copenhagen Airport (CPH)
• Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN)
• Oslo Airport (OSL)
• Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)
• Stuttgart Airport (STR)Hamburg Airport (HAM)
• Hannover Airport (HAJ)
• Belfast International Airport (BFS)
• Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)
• Budapest Airport (BUD)
• Geneve Airport (GVA)

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