Cyprus
Airport Guides

Operating Detail

Cypriot airport briefings

The notes behind the airport choice, written by the desk that files the paperwork.

Operating into Cyprus

What is different about flying a private jet into Cyprus

Cyprus is a small island with a large role in eastern Mediterranean private aviation, because of where it sits: an hour from Athens, forty minutes from Beirut, an hour and a half from Cairo, and on the line between the Gulf and Europe. Larnaca International is the gateway, open 24 hours with customs and immigration at all hours, a 9,823 foot runway at 11 feet elevation, Jet A-1 through the FBO, and no landing permit for private flights. The island is in the European Union but outside Schengen, so every arrival is a passport control whichever way the aircraft came, and it runs on Eastern European Time, UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer.

Handling on the island means Skylink Services, the only FBO in Cyprus, a dedicated facility at Larnaca opened in 2010 that runs 24 hours and takes everything from a very light jet to a widebody, with the old terminal serving as the VIP terminal for executive aircraft and visiting delegations. Paphos International serves the west of the island with an 8,855 foot runway at 39 feet elevation and business aviation on the same terms; Larnaca has the FBO, Paphos is chosen for the address. Ercan, in the Turkish-administered north, has a 9,038 foot runway but is recognised only by Turkey and reachable only from Turkey, so it does not feature in a private flight plan to Cyprus.

Larnaca earns a second role from Lebanon. Beirut Rafic Hariri is the only airport in Lebanon, so an aircraft that cannot land there leaves the country, and Larnaca, about 140 nautical miles west with no permit needed for the diversion, is the alternate the desk writes into every Beirut file with the fuel to reach it. The same position makes it a customs stop and a technical stop for aircraft working the Gulf to Europe.

The constraint that catches crews out is Schengen. Cyprus looks like an EU domestic sector from Athens or Rome and is not one: the aircraft arrives at an external border with passport control, and it departs to a Schengen country as an external flight, which shapes where the passengers clear and how the crew plans the day. The summer peak from May to October is the other, when parking on the ramp wants booking early and the desk holds a stand with the handling.

Send the dates, the aircraft, the passenger list and the sector as early as you have them, with the aircraft documents for a charter operator from outside the EU. The desk books Skylink and the parking, confirms any authorisation by registration, arranges the fuel and the passport control on both sides, and comes back with the handling reference and the local times confirmed.

Facts checked against the Hermes Airports publications for Larnaca and Paphos and the Skylink Services FBO data, plus Icarus Jet operations data.