Paphos Life

Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos on Thursday said the area surrounding Paphos airport is in dire need of refurbishment and that expansion works for the facility are also set to be discussed soon. Following a meeting with the community leader of Yeroskipou, where the airport is located, the airport's director Yiannis...

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Glad to hear it! The airport is plainly too small for the number of flights and passengers using it especially in the summer tourist season. It needs more space, particularly on the departure side. Also the check in area could be larger and better planned. It was just about bursting at the seams when I travelled through it last July. Now there are plans afoot to increase both the number of flights, destinations and thus the number of passengers using it, next summer.Also would the parking area for aircraft also need to be extended? But whether the time thats available before next April would be enough to plan,cost, find a contractor , start and finish the work in time is debatable? The approach road to the terminal certainly needs decent lighting. In parts there is nothing at all and its totally dark going throughthe woodland.
Dee

Plenty of free standing for the aircraft, last time we left we were 'bussed' out to the area in front of the old terminal, where there is loads of room. Agree though that the terminal will need extending if passenger traffic keeps increasing. Main requirement for me would be lights/roundabout where the airport road joins the B6.

There seems to be room for expansion to the East of the Terminal Building and also to the East of the car park

whether the time thats available before next April would be enough to plan,cost, find a contractor , start and finish the work in time is debatable?

It is not at all debatable, you forget that this is Cyprus unless you mean April 2026 which would be about the earliest practicable date.

Of course you are quite right, Devil. Accelerated times for construction of anything new here just doesn't happen! Wishful thinking perhaps on my part!
But how can the Govt expect to cram yet more punters into an already over crowded space?
I guess they could expand the number of 'cattle pens' outside to suit these new conditions and thus alleviate the overcrowding in the terminal that way..thus giving more departing passengers a chance to enjoy aircraft spotting.

What about those human cattle pens must be horrendous stuck there in July/August
Many said when the new one was constructed that it was too small

Being a regular user of Paphos airport it is my opinion the Airport terminal is great but of course it does have some issues like most airports do.

In the main season the fact that they have lots of flights all arriving and departing at the same times makes it chaos, tour operators are guilty of dropping of there load for check in hours before departure just adds to the fact the check in and security area entrance with self scan gets clogged up.

I understand operators pick up people early for operational reasons but its easy for them to collect everyone and dump them at the terminal end of problem.

Just a thought but perhaps if they upgraded the old terminal area they could perhaps use that as a designated departure area for say Jet 2 flights as they appear to be one of the biggest operators now.

There is always plenty of aircraft parking on the apron so don't see an issue there, what is needed is more car park space for cars outside.

The facilities within the airport itself are much the same as any other, in my opinion, the approach road and parking are major issues, surely finishing off the ' road to nowhere ' would be the obvious choice for improvement.

Driving towards the airport at night down that dark road from the B6 isn't a pleasant experience, again , just my personal opinion, lets get the well lit dual carriageway completed, surely it is long overdue.
Trireme

My solutions would be, refurbish and open the old terminal as an extra terminal during peak times. Build the last bit of the airport road from Konia, at the end of the dual carriageway, to the airport. Enable free parking, like there used to be, for the first half hour in the airport car park. This would relieve the chaos with people taking up car parking spaces at the drop off zone. Also make the airport road safe for cyclists, as this sport is being promoted abroad as a brilliant destination for cyclists and yet the route to Paphos is extremely unsafe. (I overtook a group of cyclists today, giving 3 metres, and a taxi overtook me as I was going past the cyclists)

I remember reading that there is a major problem with Govt (or the entity responsible) for purchasing this land which links the premature end of the dual carriageway to the airport.
To me it seems madness to encourage cyclists to use the existing B6 and the approach road to the airport. Both are too narrow for cycle lanes. The approach road in use from the B6 to the airport is in need of an upgrade. But the airport boundary, plus the military base fencing probably precludes the whole road from being widened. But despite this, it would be much safer for drivers if it were properly lit.

It would certainly be a good idea if the old airport terminal were refurbished for use as a relief terminal in the summer. The disadvantage would be that it would also cost a bit to do this, as I remember as one who has used it way back when, that it was in a pretty awful state of repair then. The toilets were truly awful, and the other facilities very limited to non existent. It would also need a number of staff of all kinds to run it.

But charter flight tour operators like Jet2, TUI and others who route all their flights to arrive within 5 mins of each other, and which throws the existing airport facilities into chaos, could use it and have separate parking for tour busses.

Dee