Virtual walk at defunct Nicosia Airport now possible

A virtual walk at the old Nicosia Airport is now possible thanks to a project titled Recapturing the Spirit of the Old Nicosia Airport by the Cyprus Institute.

The institute on Tuesday said that a team of researchers, with the support of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (Unficyp), completed the full digitization of the former Nicosia International Airport, which is now located in the buffer zone.

It is added that “after the events of 1974, the airport ceased its operations, with its surroundings hosting Unficyp’s headquarters, but the building itself out of bounds”.

Today, it added, access to the airport terminal is deemed unsafe due to it being abandoned for years and lack of maintenance.

“Thanks to the NIC platform it is now possible to explore it again, virtually walking all its spaces including offices, shops, public and restricted areas, bringing back to the society a landmark of Cyprus history,” the institute said.

The NIC Project (named after the airport’s IATA code) focuses on an interdisciplinary 3D modelling and a visualisation process to create interactive applications for virtual tours.

“After a meticulous and long data analysis and post processing, The Cyprus Institute is thrilled to release the first version of the NIC platform, which includes a full virtual tour including all accessible areas of the main terminal, the control tower, the hangar, and three planes sitting in the airport premises,” it added.

Additionally, the NIC platform features a collection of historical images and videos which aim to open a window to the days when the airport was fully operational and used by numerous holiday makers.

The platform is freely available at https://nic-project.com

The NIC logo is inspired by the last flight which landed in Nicosia and designed according to the baggage tags used by airline carriers to route check luggage to their final destinations.

“It aims to remind that the Nicosia International airport was once fully operational. Flight CY317 was operated by Cyprus Airways with a Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 1E plane, registration 5B-DAE. It was the last flight which landed in Nicosia departing from London via Rome on 19 July 1974,” the institute said.