Cyprus Airways to announce newest generation of aircraft with 40% less emissions, says CEO

Cyprus Airways will be announcing its newest generation of aircraft with a 40% reduction of emissions compared to its current fleet, the Cypriot carrier’s CEO and CCO Paul Sies has said.

In an interview with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Sies – who joined Cyprus Airways in May 2022 – referred to the airline’s plans to reduce emissions in line with the aviation industry’s commitment to Fly Net Zero in 2050.

“Very soon you will hear about the pivotal role Cyprus Airways will play in working towards a net-zero emissions operation,” he said. “We are in a quite unique situation where the Cyprus Government allows to offset the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel with 100% carbon credits, and we intend to use a mix of up to 20% SAF, allowing Cyprus Airways to be well ahead of others in this domain. Furthermore, we will be announcing our order of the newest generation of aircraft with a 40% reduction of emissions vs. our current fleet.”

Sies also hailed Cyprus’ “remarkable job” in both reinstating air connectivity and penetrating new markets, after having to completely reinvent its tourism sector following successive crises.

“It’s not only the Covid-19 crisis, but also a radical shift in the type of visiting tourist since the start of the war in Ukraine,” he explained. “The country has had to reinvent its tourism sector, which used to be heavily dependent on Russian travellers. It did a remarkable job both reinstating air connectivity and penetrating new markets simultaneously.”

As he said, most of this was driven by adding Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) capacity and charters. However, while this type of connectivity serves the peak seasons, the same cannot be said about the winter tourism and business travel segments. “This is precisely where Cyprus Airways comes in,” said Sies. “As the sole Cypriot carrier serving Cyprus, it is carefully building structural connectivity to key gateways in Europe, facilitating new tourist markets, but also the ‘visiting friends and relatives’ segment, and business traffic.”

Asked why a flag carrier was important for Cyprus, Sies explained that the island cannot rely on train, road or even marine connectivity so the only sure way to get there is by air. “Many legacy carriers and LCCs operate into Cyprus but do so totally driven by opportunity,” he said. “From July to October, you will find many flights, however not always ideally timed for all types of travellers. The seasonality curve is about 65% winter vs. summer, leaving the island insufficiently connected many months of the year. It becomes a chicken and egg situation, as the absence of flights leads to hospitality closing, and because of the lack of hospitality, airlines do not invest in flights.”

And so Cyprus Airways is attempting to alleviate this situation by slowly increasing winter destinations, capacity, and frequency, increasing the country’s connectivity, which, in turn, is making hospitality providers enthusiastic about opening during the winter.

So how does Cyprus Airways intend to deliver its new strategic plan to offer customers a low-cost base, but also enable them to upgrade services according to their needs?

“We operate a totally unbundled product, providing the opportunity to buy just a seat or add multiple perks to your travel,” said Sies. “This is not unique; however, it gives people choices other airlines do not offer. Our pricing strategy is very easy and straightforward - we should always be among the five best offers on a route.”

Furthermore, he said the airline had just signed an agreement with FlyrLabs, which will offer its AI suite of Revenue Management and Ancillary Revenue Management to optimise Cyprus Airways’ inventory and have its flights optimised taking into account the competition, strategy and demand 24/7.

Cyprus Airways operates flights to Europe and the Middle East with a team of over 100 people based at Larnaca International Airport. All Cyprus Airways flights operate on Airbus A320 aircraft with a capacity of 180 Economy Class seats each.

(Source: iata.org)