Larnaca International Airport

Larnaca International Airport Διεθνής Aερολιμένας Λάρνακας Larnaka Uluslararası Havaalanı
IATA: LCA – ICAO: LCLK
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Hermes Airports Ltd
Serves	Larnaca, Limassol & southeast Nicosia
Location	Larnaca, Cyprus
Hub for	Aegean Airlines Blue Air Cobalt Air Small Planet Airlines[1] Tus Airways
Coordinates	34°52′44″N 033°37′49″E / 34.87889°N 33.63028°E / 34.87889; 33.63028Coordinates: 34°52′44″N 033°37′49″E / 34.87889°N 33.63028°E / 34.87889; 33.63028
Website	www.hermesairports.com
Map
LCA Location within Cyprus
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 04/22 2,994 9,823 Asphalt
Statistics
Passengers (2015)[2] 5,407,248 Aircraft movements (2011) 50,329 Cargo tonnage (2008) 37,529
Source: Cypriot AIP at EUROCONTROL[3]

Larnaca International Airport (Greek: Διεθνής Aερολιμένας Λάρνακας Diethnís Aeroliménas Lárnakas Turkish: Larnaka Uluslararası Havaalanı) (IATA: LCA, ICAO: LCLK) is an international airport located 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest^[3] of Larnaca, Cyprus. Larnaca International Airport is Cyprus' main international gateway and the larger of the country's two commercial airports, the other being Paphos International Airport on the island's southwestern coast.

History

Larnaca Airport was hastily developed towards the end of 1974 after the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey on 20 July of the same year,^[4] which forced the closure of Nicosia International Airport. The site on which it was built (near the Larnaca Salt Lake), had been previously used as an airfield in the 1930s and, subsequently, as a military installation by the British forces. Larnaca International opened on 8 February 1975, with only limited infrastructure facilities and a prefabricated set of buildings comprising separate halls for departures and arrivals. The first airlines to use the new airport were Cyprus Airways using Viscount 800s leased from British Midland and Olympic Airways using NAMC YS-11s. Initially, the runway at Larnaca International was too short for jet aircraft.

Operations

The status of Cyprus as a major tourist destination means that air traffic has steadily risen to over 5 million passengers a year.^[5] This is double the capacity the airport was first designed for. For this reason, a tender was put out in 1998 to develop the airport further and increase its capacity (see below). Already completed elements of the expansion include a new control tower, fire station, runway extension, and additional administrative offices. The surrounding road network was improved by upgrading the B4 road and by completing the A3 Motorway. A new junction has been constructed near the new terminal. The new terminal was built some 500–700 m (1,600–2,300 ft) west of the old terminal, adjacent to the new control tower, with new aprons and jetways. The old terminal building is slated to be partially demolished and refurbished as a cargo centre, and is currently used as a private terminal for visiting heads of state, VIPs, and private aircraft operators.

The airport's geographic location in-between Europe, Africa, Russia and the Middle East facilitates it as an airline hub for traffic and flight operations between these locations.^[6][7][8][9] It currently holds domestic, regional and international passenger and cargo services by over 30 airlines.^[10] Notably, Gulf Air used to provide a non-stop service to New York-JFK twice a week.^[11]

Facilities

Top level entrance of the Airport

The airport has one primary passenger terminal. Departures are accommodated on the upper level, while arrivals at the ground level. A second "VIP terminal" also exists, which is used for visiting heads of state, some private aviation, and for cargo. The airport utilises a single large apron for all passenger aircraft. The concept architectural design of the passenger terminal was developed by French architects at Aéroports de Paris (ADP) with Sofréavia in France. Detail and Tender design was completed in Cyprus by 1998, with local architectural office Forum Architects and a large engineering team under the coordination of ADP. The design was later used as a base for the BOT projects of both Larnaca and Pafos International Airports though significant changes were made mainly on "value engineering" grounds. A large amount of controversy spurred by the local media surrounded the granting of the contract when it was put out to tender. A consortium led by BAA and Joannou & Paraskevaides (J&P) construction quickly pulled out when it did not receive assurances from the government of Cyprus that it would receive financial compensation in the event that direct flights were allowed between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the world. The contract was eventually hastily granted to the next best bidder, the French led 'Hermes' Consortium. This too, was not free of controversy, causing legal challenges by BAA and J&P, and adding further delays to a much needed project.

Upgrades

Gates inside the Airport

A €650m upgrade of the Larnaca and Paphos airports has been completed in 2006.^[12] The international tender was won by Hermes Airports, a French-led group. The consortium is made up of Bouygues Batiment International (22%) Egis Projects (20%), the Cyprus Trading Corporation (a local retail group-10%), Iacovou Brothers (a local contractor-10%), Hellenic Mining (10%), Vancouver Airport Services (10%), Ireland's Dublin Airport Authority (Aer Rianta International) (10%), Charilaos Apostolides (a local construction company-5%) and Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (3%). Hermes Airports built new passenger terminals and plans to extend the runways at both airports under a 25-year concession.

A new terminal building opened on 7 November 2009.^[13] It has 16 jetways (boarding bridges), 67 check in counters, 8 self check-in kiosks, 48 departure gates, 2,450 parking spots. The new terminal can handle 7.5 million passengers per year. Infrastructure also features a large engineering hangar, a cargo terminal, and separate facilities for fuelling and provisioning light aircraft. There is a second, smaller apron where cargo aircraft and private aircraft are often parked. There are also spaces for smaller aircraft for flying schools and privately owned aircraft separate from the main two aprons.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

• ^1 Vilnius flights will be transferred to Kaunas airport in period between 14/07/2017 - 18/08/2017 as Vilnius Airport will be carrying out reconstruction of the runway^[43]

Cargo

Statistics

Busiest routes from Larnaca Int'l Airport, per week

Rank	Destination	Airport(s)	Winter 2016	Top carriers
1	Athens	ATH	109	Aegean Airlines, Blue Air, Cobalt Air, Emirates
2	Tel Aviv	TLV	68	Aegean Airlines, Arkia, El Al, Israir, Tus Air
3	London	GTW, LHR, LTN, STN	40	Aegean Airlines, British Airways, Blue Air, Cobalt Air, easyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways
4	Moscow	DME, SVO, VKO	29	Aeroflot, Pobeda, S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines
5	Thessaloniki	SKG	22	Aegean Airlines, Cobalt Air, Ellinair
6	Vienna	VIE	18	Austrian Airlines, Niki
7	Doha	DOH	17	Qatar Airways
8	Beirut	BEY	14	Middle East Airlines
9	Dubai	DXB	14	Emirates
10	Bucharest	OTP	13	Blue Air, TAROM, Wizz Air

Ground transport

The airport can be reached by car, taxi and public transport system. There is a shuttle bus system from/to both Limassol^[44] and Nicosia. Local buses are available at the airport to various locations in Larnaca.

Incidents and accidents

• On 13 October 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, flying from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt, with 91 passengers and crew was hijacked by four Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members, and was diverted and landed in turn at the airports in Rome, Larnaca, Bahrain and Dubai.^[45] The Boeing 737 was then forced to fly on to Mogadishu Airport, Somalia, where a German antiterrorist squad stormed the plane, killing three hijackers, arresting one and rescuing all passengers. The captain of the flight had previously been murdered by the lead terrorist.
• On 19 February 1978, Larnaca Airport was the scene of the Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport: a 1-hour gun battle between Unit 777, an Egyptian military counter-terrorism force, who had raided Larnaca International, and the Cypriot National Guard.
  The crisis had begun the previous day, when Youssef Sebai, editor of a prominent Egyptian newspaper and friend of Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, was assassinated at the Nicosia Hilton hotel by two gunmen as he was preparing to address the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) conference being held at the hotel. The gunmen, a Jordanian and a Kuwaiti, opposed to the Sadat regime, took 50 hostages among the conference attendees, including two representatives of the PLO who happened to be attending the conference. Non-Arab delegates and women were released shortly. Yasser Arafat, with the Cypriot president's agreement, dispatched an unarmed force of 16 to assist with negotiations and any possible rescue operation.
  Through negotiations with the Cypriot government, the two attackers were allowed to board a plane to escape with their 15 remaining hostages, including the two PLO hostages. They forced the plane to approach several countries including Libya and Syria but each time their request to land was refused, so after refueling in Djibouti, the plane was forced to return to Larnaca Airport. Egypt then dispatched its entire antiterrorist squad aboard a C-130 Hercules to deal with the hijacking; however, they did so without the knowledge or consent of the Cypriot government.
  On landing in Larnaca, the commandos launched an all-out assault on the DC-8, even as Cypriot negotiators had secured the hostage-takers' surrender. Cypriot President Spyros Kyprianou and other senior officials observing the events on site were forced to retreat from the airport control tower after it was hit by bullets. Eventually the Egyptian commandos surrendered to the Cypriot forces. The two hijackers were persuaded by the British pilots to give up. The hostages exited the aircraft unharmed once the shooting was over. The Cypriots counted eight wounded. 15 members of the 74-man Egyptian Unit 777 died. President Kyprianou offered reconciliation and apologies, but maintained that Cyprus could not have allowed the Egyptians to act. Egypt and Cyprus each withdrew their diplomatic missions, and frosty relations between the two countries persisted for some time. The two hijackers were condemned to death by a Cypriot court, but the sentence was commuted by Kyprianou and the hijackers released.^{[46][47][48][49]}
• On 5 April 1988, Kuwait Airways Flight 422, a Kuwait Airways Boeing 747, was hijacked, while en route from Thailand to Kuwait. After forcing the plane to fly to Iran, the hijackers forced the crew to fly the plane further west to Algeria, but the plane landed in Larnaca for refuelling. Two Kuwaiti hostages were murdered by the hijackers and their bodies were thrown out on the airport's runway. The hijacking ended in Algeria on 20 April 1988.^[50]
• As a result of the 2006 Lebanon War, the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines evacuated its fleet to Larnaca.
• Also as a result of the 2006 Lebanon War, a Canadian military aircraft carrying Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian citizens fleeing the war, landed in Larnaca. Cyprus served as a safe haven for many nationals during the crisis. The Prime Minister was coming home from a visit to Afghanistan but landed in Larnaca to pick up Canadians who had been evacuated from Lebanon, and took them back to Canada.
• On 28 August 2007, three construction workers were injured when a complete 5 m × 40 m (16 ft × 131 ft) concrete floor collapsed at the construction site for the new passenger terminal.^[51][52]
• On 29 March 2016, EgyptAir Flight 181, operated by Airbus A320-232 SU-GCB was hijacked whilst on a Flight from Borg El Arab Airport, Alexandria to Cairo International Airport. The aircraft landed at Larnaca.^[53] The hijacker claimed to be wearing an explosive belt, but it was later revealed to be fake.^[54]

References

External links

Media related to Larnaca International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Current weather for LCLK at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for LCA at Aviation Safety Network