LONDON – Cyprus Airways has presented its ambitious growth plan to its stakeholders. The presentation covered the key milestones it achieved in 2022, its strategic plan for the next 5 years, and its fleet and networking strategy explained.
Cyprus Airways presentation
On 14 December, Cyprus Airways presented its ambitious growth plans for the coming 5 years to stakeholders during a press conference called “Cyprus Airways – The Past & the Future”.
The conference, held at the Constantinos Leventis Amphitheatre in Nicosia, Cyprus, was addressed by the Cypriot Minister of Transport, Yiannis Karousos, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Savvas Perdios, Hermes Airports CEO, Eleni Kaloyirou and the CEO of the Cyprus Airways, Paul Sies.
During the presentation to stakeholders, CEO Paul Sies highlighted the achievements of the past two years explaining that the airline faced unprecedented events, including the Covid19 pandemic and geo-political turbulence amongst others.
Despite this, he said, the airline upheld its social commitment and supported the Island with much-needed connectivity for repatriation flights and essential services including mail and cargo connectivity amongst others.
2022 achievements
2022 was the year of recovery for Cyprus Airways. During this year, the airline embarked on a ruthless restructuring exercise of its operations, network, pricing, and distribution channels.
During this year, Cyprus Airways also saw month-to-month growth, it launched new routes to Paris and Rome, expanded its capacity by investing in additional aircraft, unveiled a new fine-tuned livery, and launch a recruitment drive in view of its expansion plans.
Strategic Plan
Cyprus Airways has also released its strategic plan for the next 5 years. The airline wants to operate a hybrid business model by operating as a low-cost airline while giving passengers the option to customize their travel journey.
To offer such scalability of services the airline has embarked on a digital transformation exercise to maximize its ancillary revenue making sure that customers are always offered the best value for money.
Distribution of its sales network has also been enhanced, not only with API connectivity with many partners, but also through better legacy GDS connectivity to make sure Cyprus Airways seats are easily seen, priced, and ticketed globally.
Fleet and network strategy
Next year Cyprus Airways will operate with four Airbus A320ceo aircraft with a view to switch to the Airbus A320neo by 2025. Plans are in hand to increase the fleet to six aircraft in 2024, nine aircraft in 2025 and up to 11 aircraft by 2026.
Part of this fleet will be used for ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) operations and charter services that will allow steady revenue flows and contributions to the airline.
Following the recent launch of services to Paris and Rome, Cyprus Airways intends to continue expanding its European network and develop further point-to-point tourism and business traffic whilst also increasing connectivity to Cypriot nationals.
The airline also intends to offer a network with year-round core scheduled services connecting the Island with main cities within a 1.5-hour range that can offer intra-network connectivity to/from Athens, Beirut, and Tel Aviv and feeding to main European cities and its seasonal services to various Greek Islands.
The airline’s plans see it operating to 18 destinations next year and up to 30 destinations by 2026.
Final statements
“Today we are excited to announce five new destinations for summer ‘23; Milan, Zurich, Prague, Basel, and Cairo,” announced Mr. Sies during the conference.
Next year the airline will be resuming twice-weekly flights to Prague, Zurich, and Cairo and will, for the first time, operate a twice-weekly service to Basel. Milan Bergamo will also be serviced twice a week with the possibility to increase the operation to a three-times-a-week service.
Current trending destinations such as Paris and Rome will remain in operation through summer alongside Santorini (twice per week), Skiathos (twice per week), and Preveza (twice per week). Crete and Rhodes will be serviced with three-time weekly flights, whilst Thessaloniki will be serviced daily.
Beirut will reclaim its daily service while operations to Tel Aviv will increase to up to 10 flights per week. Services to Yerevan, Armenia are set to increase to up to four weekly flights whilst Athens will be serviced with up to three daily flights.
Concluding his presentation CEO Paul Sies said, “Cyprus Airways is strategically positioned to connect Europe with Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Our plan is based on having a lean organization having a strong brand and ambition to succeed to grow and connect Cyprus structurally to Europe and beyond.”
“The further development of the Cyprus Airways network is a positive development. I am confident that we will continue working together to contribute even more to our country’s economy and the tourism industry,” said the Chief Executive Officer of Hermes Airports, Eleni Kaloyirou.
