The number of commercial flights departing from and landing in Cyprus in March 2022 was 17 per cent lower than in the same month in 2019, before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Eurostat report published on Thursday.
Cyprus’ 17 per cent drop is the eighth lowest in the EU 27, and below the EU 27 average of -27 per cent.
According to Eurostat, March 2022 saw an improvement compared to 2021, with the number of commercial flights in the EU increasing by 156 per cent.
Nevertheless, the figure is still below pre-pandemic levels, standing at -27% compared with March 2019.
In absolute terms, the number of commercial flights stood at 389,181 in March 2022, compared with 151,986 in March 2021, 296,362 in March 2020 and 530,400 in March 2019.
The EU countries with the lowest decreases in commercial flights in March 2022 compared to 2019 were Croatia, with -6 per cent, Portugal with -8 per cent and Greece with -12 per cent.
In contrast, flights decreased the most in Slovenia, where the figure stood at -56 per cent, Sweden at -45 per cent, and Latvia at -43 per cent.
Due to the ongoing conflict, in March 2022, commercials flights with Russia and Ukraine came to a standstill: there were 52 flights with Russia and zero with Ukraine, compared with March 2019.
Finally, since 2019, due to the impact of Covid-19, the non-EU countries with most commercial flights links to the bloc were the UK, Switzerland, Turkey, the US, Russia, Norway, Morocco, Israel, Ukraine and Egypt.
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