Airport arrivals increased in Cyprus in January 2025 compared to last year.

“The Larnaca and Paphos airports welcomed 551,439 passengers during January 2025, recording an increase of 6.81 per cent compared to 2024,” the transport ministry announced.

Larnaca airport saw an increase of passenger arrivals of 12.7 per cent compared to 2024, while on the other hand Paphos airport recorded a decrease of -7.24 per cent from last January.

Meanwhile, January’s main country markets were the UK, Greece, Israel, Poland and Germany.

Air traffic increased by 10.32 per cent or to 5,346 flights, compared to last year.

As of December 2024, most arrivals originated from the United Kingdom with a share of 23.7 per cent. Israeli arrivals marked 17.4 per cent followed by Poland with 9.4, Greece with 9 and Germany with 5.7 per cent.

Hermes director of aviation development Maria Kouroupi said that in December 2024, “a total of 11.6 million people had passed through the two airports in the first 11 months of the year, with exactly 715,231 of them having done so in November.”

Other than that, overnight stays in Cyprus increased by 5.5 per cent in 2024 according to Eurostat.

The increase in overnight stays accompanies the spike in tourist arrivals, surpassing four million for the first time in 2024, beats the previous record of 3,976,777 arrivals in 2019.

Tourism Minister Kostas Koumis had previously described the increase as a historic achievement, saying that the numbers officially sealed the tourism success of 2024, making it a success which belonged “to the entire tourism ecosystem of the Republic”.

Talking at the opening of the Cyprus Airways Flying Academy at Larnaca airport, he said he was optimistic for a successful 2025.

“We have had the best nine months of all time…arrivals and revenues are recording a remarkable increase. Under the circumstances, meaning everything we have had and are facing this year, we are very, very pleased,” he said.