Booking flights online
Many airlines and discount travel websites offer you the opportunity to book your tickets online. Even if you don't end up actually buying your ticket online, websites can give an indication of the prevailing published economy fares. However, the airlines' own sites tend to give you a choice only of nonchangeable/nonrefundable and full economy fares -for the numerous options in between, you'll still have to ring them. When exploring a quoted fare on a website, always click the "Rules" link -all conditions will be spelled out in small print.
Flights from Britain and Ireland
Scheduled flights to either part of Cyprus are somewhat overpriced for the number of air miles involved; in season you might get better value from a charter (available to the South only), though see the warning under "Packages" in this section. With the entry of the southern Republic into the EU, and the opening of the "border", the strategy of flying into Larnaca (in the South) for access to either side of the island has grown in popularity.
Scheduled flights to the south of Cyprus
Larnaca and Pafos on the coast are the southern Republic's two international airports, each some four and a half to fNe hours distant from UK start-points. Cyprus Airways, the national carrier scrambling to avoid bankruptcy as of writing, offers summer (late March to late Oct) service to Larnaca from London Heathrow (2 daily, morning and evening), London Stansted (3 weekly, aftemoon), Birmingham (2 weekly, night) and Manchester (3 weekly, afternoon). Summer frequency to Pafos is markedly lower from London Heathrow (1-2 weekly, afternoon), London Stansted (2 weekly, afternoon), Manchester (3 weekly, afternoon) and Birmingham (1 weekly, night). In winter, departures for Larnaca dip marginally to 2 daily for Heathrow, 2 week~ from Stansted and Manchester, andweekly from Birmingham. For Pafos, winter frequency is typically once weekly apiece from Heathrow and Birmingham, but twice weekly from Stansted and Manchester. Helios Airways, the first private Cypriot. airline, is beginning to outstrip Cyprus Airways, from the UK at least. Their website,however, is notoriously buggy; fortunately their offerings show up on general travel sites. During summer there's a daily latemoming service from London Luton to Larnaca, two midday weekly services London Luton to Pafos, five weekly nighttime scheduled services from London Heathrow to Larnaca, two weekly (morning and late night) Binningham to Larnaca, one weekly morning flight from London Gatwick to Pafos and then on to Larnaca, one weekly morning service from Manchester to Pafos/Larnaca, and three weekly; (late-night or noon) from Dublin to Larnaca. Winter frequencies are daily from Luton to Lamaca, four weekly Heathrow to Larnaca, one weekly Gatwick to Pafos, two weekly Luton to Pafos, one weekly Manchester to Larnaca via Pafos, one weekly Dublin to Lamaca via Pafos, and one weekly Binningham to Larnaca. HeJios also functions as a charter carrier from Bristol, Newcastle, and Humberside.
British Airways offers just a daily morning service from Heathrow to Larnaca yearround, w~h add~ional late evening services April to October.
Indirect flights via a European hub are unlikely to appeal except at high season when direct services fill; they tend to have long layovers and not be conspicuously cheaper.
Fares
Fares from the UK and Ireland to either Cypriot airport have become something of an unpredictable free-for-all since the entry of Helios (and various quasi-charter airlines like ExceQ into the fray. However, from December to March (excluding the holiday period) you shouldn't ever have to pay over £200, and special offers in the region of £160-170 are common. Even in springtime fares clock in at £180-235, and buying far enough in advance you can even find highsummer fares for about £210 -though you can pay £270, or over £300, at short notice. Prices to Pafos and Larnaca are identical, as the airports are common-rated; with Cyprus Airways, it is also possible to fly into one airport and out of another for little or no extra charge (indeed you may find that planes out of Larnaca touch down at Pafos to pick up more passengers). For fully date-changeable or long-stay tickets you're looking at fares of over £500.
Chartered flights
Charter companies such as First Choice (ex-Air2000), Eurocypria, Br~ish Airways Charter, Monarch, Thomas Cook, TUI and Britannia also provide air links from Britain, but owing to Cypriot law (see "Packages" below) seats are difficult to get on a flightonly basis. In addition to the major airports, charter flights also leave from Bristol, Humberside, East Midlands, Cardiff, Luton, Glasgow and Newcastle for both Larnaca and Pafos. Although charters tend to have more family-friendly departure and arrival hours, such tickets are utterly inflexible and rarely available for more than two weeks' duration. They are usually, however, noticeably cheaper than scheduled flights: perhaps £169 London-Larnaca at Easter time, £179 Gatwick-Pafos in May, £188 Manchester-Pafos in June, £255 Birmingham-Pafos in July.
Scheduled flights to the North
Because of the IATA boycott of north Nicosia's airport at Ercan, North Cyprus has direct air links only with Turkey, where northern European planes must first touch down (at istanbul, izmir or Antalya). About half the time you will be required to change aircraft, usually being shuttled straight across the runway rather than entering the terminal. Reports of "direct" flights should be treated with healthy scepticism; at present this is permitted only during extreme weather conditions in Turkey, on an emergency basis. Even if a federal settlement is reached, and one of the North's airports declared licit, the simple economics of the situation wnl continue to dictate stopping flights. Despite the lengthening of travel time from five to seven or eight hours by the obligatory stopover, frequent scheduled flights start from several UK airports; with very few exceptions, they arrive between 9pm and midnight. Cyprus TurKish Airways (Klbns TOrk Hava Yolari, KTHY), the official state airline flies three days weekly from Heathrow to Ercan via izmir all year; three days weekly from Gatwick via Antalya; twice daily from Stansted via Antalya, Dalaman or izmir; twice weekly (weekend and midweek) from Manchester via Dalaman; and once weekly from Glasgow via Antalya. However, travellers' chat websites are full of horror stories about KTHY and, despite an uncivilised departure time returning from Ercan, regular fliers still reckon it worth paying the (often substantial) difference and flying with the far more professional Turkish Airlines. They offer year-round through service from Manchester five days weekly. and daily midday service from Heathrow and Stansted, to istanbul, where you can expect a fairly long layover until their single daily evening flight to Ercan.
Otherwise, Onur Air has either dawn or midafternoon service from Stansted via istanbul two days weekly, Thursday and Sunday in winter, Friday and Sunday in summer. They also have one weekly afternoon service from Manchester, usually Saturday. Onur Air has, however, quickly acquired a reputation for changing flight days with little warning -and if you can't or won't fly on the newly designated day, you lose the value of your ticket. Fares from London start at just under £220 return during winter on KTHY (£270 on Turkish Airlines), with substantial hikes to about £270 in summer on KTHY (up to £400 on Turkish Airlines); allow £20-30 extra for Manchester departures. Subject to the caveat noted above, Onur Air works out rather cheaper: £149 in the pit of winter, up to £299 at peak season. You're pretty much expected to purchase tickets to the North through an agent; Onur doesn't have a website at present, and neither the KTHY nor THY websites are authorised to sell fares to Ercan (though you can sometimes find tickets to Ercan -code ECN -on general travel websites in the UK).
Flights from neighbouring countries
Larnaca in the South has eir connections from most neighbouring countries, with flights on Cyprus Airways from Amman (at least 2 weekly year-round), Athens (3-4 daily all year), Beirut (daily), Cairo (at least 2 weekly year-round), Damascus (3 weekly), Iraklio, Crete (3 weekly, March-oct only), Rhodes (2 weekly, March--Oct only) and Tel Aviv (daily in summer, 4 weekly in winter). Olympic Airways also flies into Lamaca from Athens four times daily most of the year (and from Thessaloniki 4 times weekly), while Aegean Air does 5 daily flights from Athens (some code-shared with Helios Airways). Helios will also soon provide a few weekly services from Hania, Crete to Larnaca. Royal Jordanian, EI AI and Egyptair contribute a couple of flights each, weekly, from Amman, Tel Aviv and Cairo respectively. Pafos is also served from Athens by Cyprus Airways (2 weekly in summer,weekly in winter), for the same price as Larnaca (the two airports are common-rated). It's worth asking for student discounts if eligible; otherwise, you'll pay a somewhat overpriced EUR 170 return from Athens, the longest haul in.
Flying from Turkey to the North, you can change from a number of routes, though be aware that all of these can be fully booked far in advance at weekends. Cyprus Turkish Airways flies in from Adana (3 weekly), Ankara (daily), Antalya (1-3 daily), istanbul (3 daily) and izmir (1-3 daily except Wed). Turkish Airlines offers a daily evening service (plus an extra later flight Fri & Sun) from istanbul year-round -more for political than economic reasons, as it can't be profitable. Return fares from istanbul to the North are periodically offloaded for as little as £53/$100 round trip -if you don't have a car, this is a far better option than the ferry from southern Turkey.
