The airport utilizes a single large apron for all aircraft. There are no jetways (boarding bridges), and so passengers are conveyed by bus between the terminal and the aircraft. This situation will improve when the replacement terminal comes online. The current infrastructure also feature a large engineering hangar, a cargo terminal, and separate facilities for fueling and provisioning light aircraft.

History

Larnaca Airport was hastily developed towards the end of 1974 after the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey on 20 July of the same year, which forced the closure of Nicosia International Airport. The site on which it was built (near the Larnaca Salt Lake), had been previously used as an airfield in the 1930s and, subsequently, as a military installation by the British forces. Larnaca International opened on 8 February 1975, with only limited infrastructure facilities and a prefabricated set of buildings comprising separate halls for departures and arrivals. The first airlines to use the new airport were Cyprus Airways using Viscount 800s leased from British Midland and Olympic Airways using NAMC YS-11s. Initially, the runway at Larnaca International was too short for jet aircraft.

Nowadays, Larnaca Airport is used as a hub by passengers traveling between Europe and the Middle East. The status of Cyprus as a major tourist destination means that air traffic has steadily risen to over 5 million passengers a year. This is double the capacity the airport was first designed for. As such, a tender was put out in 1998 to develop the airport further and increase its capacity (see below). Already completed elements of the expansion include a new control tower, fire station, runway extension, and additional administrative offices. The surrounding road network was improved by upgrading the B4 road and by completing the A3 Motorway. A new Junction has been constructed near by the new terminal. The terminal itself will be rebuilt some 500–700 m (1,600–2,300 ft) west of current facilities, adjacent to the new control tower, with new aprons and jet ways. The old terminal building is slated to be partially demolished and refurbished as a cargo centre. The concept architectural design was developed by French architects at Aéroports de Paris (ADP) with Sofréavia in France. Detail and Tender design was completed in Cyprus by 1998, with local architectural office Forum Architects and a large engineering team under the coordination of ADP. The design was later used as a base for the BOT projects of both Larnaca and Pafos International Airports though significant changes were made mainly on "value engineering" grounds. A large amount of controversy spurred by the local media surrounded the granting of the contract when it was put out to tender. A consortium led by BAA[clarification needed] and Joannou & Paraskevaides (J&P) construction quickly pulled out when it did not receive assurances from the Greek Cypriot Government that it would receive financial compensation in the event that direct flights were allowed between the Turkish occupied north of the island and the rest of the world. The contract was eventually hastily granted to the next best bidder, the French led 'Hermes' Consortium. This too, was not free of controversy, causing legal challenges by BAA and J&P, and adding further delays to a much needed project.

Development

A €650m upgrade of the Larnaca and Paphos airports has commenced,[2] representing Cyprus's first Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project.[3] The international tender was won by Hermes Airports, a French-led group. The consortium is made up of Bouygues Batiment International (22%) Egis Projects (20%), the Cyprus Trading Corporation (a local retail group-10%), Iacovou Brothers (a local contractor-10%), Hellenic Mining (10%), Vancouver Airport Services (10%), Ireland's Dublin Airport Authority (Aer Rianta International) (10%), Charilaos Apostolides (a local construction company-5%) and Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (3%).

Hermes Airports is to build new passenger terminals and extend the runways at both airports under a 25-year concession. Larnaca’s first phase will serve 7.5 million passengers a year. A new terminal building is due to be opened 11 November 2009.[4] The existing arrivals hall was expanded in February 2006 by adding two luggage belts, bringing the total up to six, as well as an addition of a smoking area and a larger lounge. This was done as a temporary measure to enable the airport to handle passengers until the new terminal currently under construction nearby becomes available.

The second phase, to be completed in 2013, provides for the expansion of the new terminal to handle 9 million passengers a year, and for a 500 m (1,600 ft) runway extension. The design for a new 98,000 m2 (1,050,000 sq ft) terminal includes 16 boarding bridges and is intended to reflect the proportions of a medieval aqueduct located in the city.[5][6]

Public Transport

The airport can be reached by car, taxi and public transport system. From Limassol, there is a shuttle bus system[7] with 14 trips per day and ticket price is €7. From Nicosia the shuttle[8] can have up to 30 trips per day and the ticket price is €5. The shuttle services are non-stop.
Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines	Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion [seasonal], Rhodes [seasonal]
Aeroflot	Moscow-Sheremetyevo
Aerosvit Airlines	Kiev-Boryspil
Air Berlin	Nuremberg [begins 2 November], Zürich [ends 24 October]
Air Malta	Malta
Air Moldova	Chisinau
Air Slovakia	Bratislava, Kuwait
ArkeFly	Amsterdam [seasonal]
Arkia Israel Airlines	Tel Aviv-Sde Dov
Austrian Airlines	Vienna
Baboo	Geneva [seasonal]
Belavia	Minsk
Blue Air	Bucharest-Băneasa
British Airways	London-Heathrow
Bulgaria Air	Sofia
Condor	Berlin-Schönefeld [begins 2 November], Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg [begins 2 November], Munich
Cyprus Airways	Amman, Amsterdam, Athens, Bahrain, Beirut, Birmingham, Brussels, Cairo, Damascus, Dubai, Frankfurt, Heraklion, Jeddah, Kiev-Boryspil, Kuwait, London-Heathrow, London-Stansted, Manama, Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Paphos, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rhodes, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Vienna, Zürich
Czech Airlines	Prague
Donbassaero	Donetsk
EasyJet	London-Gatwick [seasonal]
Edelweiss Air	Geneva, Zürich
EgyptAir	Cairo
Emirates	Dubai, Malta
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi
Eurocypria Airlines	Belfast-International, Berlin-Schönefeld, Birmingham, Bournemouth [seasonal], Bristol, Cardiff, Dresden, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg [begins 3 November] Heraklion, Humberside, Leipzig/Halle, Lisbon, London-Gatwick, Lyon, Manchester, Munich, Newcastle, Norwich, Nuremberg, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stuttgart, St Petersburg, Tel Aviv [seasonal], Warsaw
Gulf Air	Bahrain
Hamburg International	Berlin-Schönefeld, Hamburg, Leipzig/Halle [all end 26 October]
Jat Airways	Abu Dhabi, Belgrade, Tel Aviv
Jazeera Airways	Kuwait
Jet2.com	Leeds-Bradford
LOT Polish Airlines	Warsaw
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich
Malév Hungarian Airlines	Budapest
MCA Airlines	Stockholm-Arlanda
Middle East Airlines	Beirut
Monarch Airlines	Birmingham, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, Manchester
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Oslo-Gardermoen
Novair	Gothenburg-Landvetter
Olympic Air	Athens
Primera Air	Dublin
Rossiya	St Petersburg
Royal Jordanian	Amman
SmartWings	Prague [seasonal]
Sun d'Or International Airlines	Tel Aviv
Swiss International Air Lines	Zürich
Syrian Arab Airlines	Damascus
Transaero Airlines	Moscow-Domodedovo
Travel Service	Budapest, Prague
TAROM	Bucharest-Henri Coandă
Thomas Cook Airlines	Belfast-International, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Glasgow-International, Leeds/Bradford, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle
Thomson Airways	Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dublin, Glasgow-International, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle
Ural Airlines	Yekaterinburg [seasonal]
XL Airways France	Strasbourg

Incidents and accidents

* On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181 flying from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt with 91 passengers and crew was hijacked by four Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists, and was diverted and landed in turn at the airports in Rome, Larnaca, Bahrain and Dubai.[9] The Boeing 737 was then forced to fly on to Mogadishu Airport, Somalia, where a German antiterrorist squad stormed the plane, killing 3 hijackers, arresting one and rescuing all passengers.
* On 19 February 1978, Larnaca Airport was the scene of a 1-hour gun battle between Unit 777, an Egyptian military counter-terrorism force, who had raided Larnaca International, and the Cypriot National Guard.

The crisis had begun the previous day, when Youssef Sebai, editor of a prominent Egyptian newspaper and friend of Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, was assassinated at the Nicosia Hilton hotel by two gunmen. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists then hijacked a Cyprus Airways DC-8 plane taking several Egyptian hostages. They forced the plane to approach several countries including Libya, Syria and Djibouti, but each time their request to land was refused, so the plane was forced to return to Larnaca Airport. Egypt then dispatched its entire antiterrorist squad aboard a C-130 Hercules to deal with the hijacking; however, doing so without the consent of the Cypriot government. On landing in Larnaca the commandos launched an all-out assault on the DC-8, even as Cypriot negotiators had secured the hostage-takers' surrender. Cypriot President Spyros Kyprianou and other senior officials observing the events on site were forced to retreat from the airport control tower after it was hit by bullets. The crisis ended after the Cypriot National Guard overpowered the Egyptian commandos. 15 members of the 74-man Egyptian anti-terrorist unit died. There were no Cypriot fatalities. President Kyprianou offered reconciliation and apologies, but maintained that Cyprus could not have allowed the Egyptians to act. Frosty diplomatic relations between the two countries persisted for some time. Two Palestinian hijackers were swiftly prosecuted. They received death sentences, later reduced to life imprisonment.[10][11][12]

* On 5 April 1988, a Kuwait Airways Boeing 747 (Kuwait Airways Flight 422) was hijacked, while en route from Thailand to Kuwait. After forcing the plane to fly to Iran, the hijackers forced the crew to fly the plane back east to Algeria, but the plane landed in Larnaca for refuelling. Two Kuwaiti hostages were executed by the hijackers and their bodies were thrown out on the airport’s runway. The hijacking ended in Algeria on 20 April 1988.[13]
* As a result of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis, the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines evacuated its fleet to Larnaca International Airport.
* Also as a result of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis, a Canadian military aircraft carrying Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian citizens fleeing the war, landed in Larnaca. Cyprus served as a safe haven for many nationals during the crisis. The Prime Minister was coming home from a visit to Afghanistan but landed in Lebanon to pick-up Canadians stranded, and took them back to Canada.
* On 28 August 2007, three Filipino construction workers were injured when a complete 5 m × 40 m (16 ft × 130 ft) concrete floor collapsed at the construction site for the new Larnaca International Airport passenger terminal.[14] [15]

References

1. ^ a b EAD Basic
2. ^ "Foundation stone laid at new Larnaca Airport" (in English). Financial Mirror. 2006-06-26. http://www.financialmirror.com/more_news.php?id=4135&type=news. Retrieved 2006-12-28.
3. ^ Coleman, Gina (May 2007). "Work on schedule at ‘world class’ airport". Travel & Tourism News (Al Hilal Publishing). http://www.ttnworldwide.com/Articles.asp?Article=6578. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
4. ^ Official Website for Larnaka & Pafos International Airports
5. ^ CTC: Agreement between Hermes Airports and Cyprus Gov't for the development of airports- Report by the Cyprus Stock exchange. July 11, 2005 [1]
6. ^ AIRPORTS: Anxious to improve visitors' first impressions - Financial Times December 19, 2006 [2]
7. ^ AirportShuttleBus.eu
8. ^ Kapnos Airport Shuttle
9. ^ "Terror and Triumph at Mogadishu". Time Magazine. October 31, 1977. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945802,00.html. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
10. ^ Rescuing Nationals Abroad Through Military Coercion and Intervention on Grounds of Humanity by Ronzitti, Natalino (p.40-41), 1985, Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff, ISBN 9024731356
11. ^ Political Terrorism: Theory, Tactics and Counter-Measures, by Grant Wardlow, (page 60), 1989, Publisher: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521368413
12. ^ "Murder and Massacre on Cyprus". Time Magazine. March 6, 1978. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915969-2,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
13. ^ "Terrorism Nightmare on Flight 422 - Murder and zealotry meet in a jumbo jet", Time Magazine, Monday, 25 April 1988, [3]
14. ^ "Hermes regrets accident at new Cyprus airport site". Financial Mirror. 2007-08-30. http://www.financialmirror.com/more_news.php?id=8091&nt=Politics. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
15. ^ Hazou, Elias (2007-08-30). "Three injured in accident at new Larnaca airport site". Cyprus Mail. http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=34379&cat_id=1. Retrieved 2007-08-31.

Links

• Larnaca International Airport
• Current weather for LCLK at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for LCA at Aviation Safety Network