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Natalya Milovanova, Chief Financial Officer of Cyprus Airways.
Airline carries 10 times more passengers year-on-year, aggressive competition hinders budget realisation; Improves load factor by 30%.
LARNACA, CYPRUS – Cyprus Airways announced the best January passenger results since 2019. Last month the Cypriot Flag-carrying airline carried 27,356 passengers (Jan ’22: 2,776), almost ten times more passengers than last year, operated 277 flights (Jan’22: 80 flights) and improved its load factor by 30% points. These results are also notable when compared to 2019, before the start of the pandemic, since the airline carried 56% more passengers and operated 69% more flights than during 2019.
“We started this year on a positive note, achieving good results during our traditionally quiet period. This augurs well for the year ahead during which we will continue expanding our operations to serve 19 destinations and support our ambitious, yet controlled, growth plans”, said Natalya Milovanova, Chief Financial Officer of Cyprus Airways.
“Over the last few weeks, we announced the strengthening of our network with the addition of important interflag-carrying gateways like Dubai, Paris and Rome. We intend to continue expanding and developing our network further with more point-to-point destinations to support our increasing VFR and business traffic whilst also increasing year-round connectivity to/from Cyprus. Together with the support of the Cypriot Ministries of Transportation and Tourism, the hospitality sector and other tourism stakeholders, we will be in a strong position to achieve further growth to continue assisting the tourism sector,” added Paul Sies, Chief Executive of the Airline.
“Although we note growth, we also find ourselves in a very competitive environment where we see that other carriers are copying our network development and adding capacity whilst lowering fares. This is not healthy for the market. Many of these carriers closed shop during the Covid pandemic whilst others had generous handouts from their governments. Cyprus Airways continued operating bringing stranded tourists and residents back home and assisting the island with cargo and passenger connectivity during this crisis”, added Mr Sies.
In summer Cyprus Airways will start operations to Dubai, Milan, Zurich, Prague, Basel, and Cairo with a multiple weekly schedule. Depending on demand, cities like Milan and Paris are expected to be serviced with additional weekly services. Throughout summer the airline will continue operating to Rome and Paris and expects to further extend these destinations in winter ‘23/24 together with twice weekly services each to Santorini, Skiathos, and Preveza. Crete and Rhodes are expected to be serviced with three times a week flights, and Thessaloniki with a twice a week service. Services to Beirut will be operated daily, whilst 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.
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She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
