Cyprus Airways

If you vacation in Cyprus and look up from the beach in Larnaca, sooner or later you will see an A220 with a CY flight number. Behind the name Cyprus Airways, however, there is more than a small island airline: it exists in two versions. The first flew from 1947 to 2015 as the state-owned airline of Cyprus – with Tridents, One-Elevens, Boeing 707s and later Airbuses. The second has used the name and codes of the old one since 2017, but is an entirely new company. This page separates the two eras cleanly and shows you what to watch for when spotting and when sorting old photos.

Cyprus Airways at a glance

Cyprus Airways is the airline of Cyprus with its hub in Larnaca. That is how briefly it can be put today – but the sentence refers to two different companies:

• The old Cyprus Airways (1947–2015): founded on September 24, 1947, for decades majority-owned by the Republic of Cyprus, headquartered in Nicosia, with flight operations from Larnaca. On January 9, 2015 it ceased operations. It is therefore historic.
• The new Cyprus Airways (since 2017): the private Charlie Airlines Ltd., founded in January 2016, won the tender for the brand rights and started scheduled service from Larnaca in June 2017. Its headquarters are also in Larnaca.

Both companies fly under the same identifiers. That is convenient for passengers, but a trap for anyone sorting photos and logbooks: a sighting with “CY” or “CYP” tells you nothing, without a date, about which of the two airlines is meant.

Codes and callsigns

• IATA code CY: appears in the flight number on the departure board and ticket.
• ICAO code CYP: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign CYPRUS: this is how the crew calls in on the radio.

How IATA and ICAO codes relate and why trackers sometimes show one and sometimes the other is explained in the guide IATA and ICAO codes explained. For Cyprus Airways there is a peculiarity: the codes were passed on along with the brand. If you filter a database by CYP, you get flights from both eras.

The old Cyprus Airways: 1947 to 2015

Founded with British participation

In 1947 Cyprus was still a British colony. Cyprus Airways was therefore founded as a joint venture of the then colonial government, the British state airline British European Airways (BEA) and private shareholders. The airline began its own flight operations in April 1948 with three Douglas DC-3s.

The close tie to BEA shaped the first decades. From 1958 BEA ran the operation of the routes and provided aircraft and crews. So under Cyprus Airways flight numbers there flew, among others, Vickers Viscounts on regional routes and, from 1960, Comet 4Bs operated by BEA – you can read more about the world’s first jet airliner in the article on the De Havilland Comet.

Independence and jets of its own

With Cypriot independence in 1960, the Cypriot state became majority shareholder. In the late 1960s the Hawker Siddeley Trident brought the first jet of its own into the fleet, followed later by the BAC One-Eleven 500, which was in service from 1974 to 1995. In 1962, at BEA’s request, the trademark was also created that was to accompany the airline for over half a century: the leaping mouflon on the tail.

1974: loss of the home base

The summer of 1974 was the deepest cut in the company’s history. During the Turkish invasion in July, Nicosia airport became a combat zone. Five of the airline’s aircraft were on the ground there; one Trident was destroyed by rocket fire and another damaged. Nicosia airport was closed and remains so to this day.

Cyprus Airways thus lost its base. On February 8, 1975 it resumed operations on a limited scale from the provisionally expanded Larnaca airport. Two only slightly damaged Tridents were not recovered from Nicosia by British Airways technicians until 1977.

Rebuilding with Boeing and Airbus

In the following years the airline rebuilt its network. In the short term it leased DC-9s and took over a DC-8; from 1976 to 1979 it flew the Boeing 720, and then until 1989 the Boeing 707-123B – the story of this type is told in the article on the Boeing 707.

From 1984 Cyprus Airways switched to Airbus. First came the widebody Airbus A310, and from 1989 the A320, which remained in service until the end in 2015. In the early 2000s the A319 and A330-200 joined the fleet, and briefly also the A321. By the mid-2000s at the latest, Cyprus Airways was a pure Airbus airline.

Period	Type	Spotter tip
1947–1957	Douglas DC-3	First fleet of its own
1950s–1970s	Vickers Viscount, Comet 4B	Operated or leased by BEA, Comet from 1960
from 1969	Hawker Siddeley Trident	First jets of its own, one aircraft destroyed in Nicosia in 1974
1974–1995	BAC One-Eleven 500	Workhorse on short-haul
1976–1989	Boeing 720, Boeing 707-123B	Medium-haul after the restart in Larnaca
1984–2003	Airbus A310-200	The airline’s first Airbus
1989–2015	Airbus A320-200	In service to the very end
2002–2013	Airbus A319, A330-200	A330 until 2012
2012–2013	Airbus A321-200	Only briefly in the fleet

Subsidiaries: Eurocypria and Hellas Jet

For leisure air traffic, Cyprus Airways founded the charter airline Eurocypria in 1992, which later passed directly to the state and was dissolved around 2010. In 2003 Hellas Jet, an offshoot based in Athens, was added; Cyprus Airways gave up its majority in this project in 2005. Both names often turn up in archives in connection with the parent – keep them separate in your notes.

The end in January 2015

From 2010 the airline posted growing losses. In several rounds of restructuring it cut routes, mainly to the Middle East, in 2011 and 2012. The state propped the company up and held a good 93 percent of the shares in 2014. The European Commission, however, judged the state aid to be unlawful and demanded repayment. That left the airline beyond saving: on January 9, 2015 Cyprus Airways ceased flight operations. At the end the fleet had shrunk to a few Airbus jets.

It shares this fate with many European state airlines of the time. An overview is given in the article Major airline failures in Europe; a close relative is Olympic Airways, the Greek state airline, whose history also ended with EU state aid proceedings.

The new Cyprus Airways: relaunch from 2017

Brand by tender

After the shutdown, the rights to the Cyprus Airways brand were put out to tender. In 2016 Charlie Airlines Ltd. prevailed and received the right to use the name initially for ten years. Among the first shareholders was the Russian S7 Airlines with a minority stake. In March 2017 the Cypriot aviation authority issued the air operator certificate, and in June 2017 the new Cyprus Airways took off on its first scheduled flights.

Since then the ownership structure has shifted. According to the airline, a group of Cypriot investors came in with a minority stake in 2024 and took the majority in 2025. The airline therefore sees itself as predominantly in local hands again. In 2018 it passed the IATA IOSA safety audit and became an IATA member.

From the A319 to the A220

The new Cyprus Airways started with two Airbus A319s in an all-economy layout. In 2022 two A320s were added, and from 2023 the Airbus A220-300 followed. According to the airline’s fleet overview, the fleet looks like this today:

Type	Number (as of 2026)	Seats	Engines	Spotter tip
Airbus A220-300	4	122 to 140, depending on cabin	Pratt & Whitney PW1500G	Slim fuselage, 2-3 seating, large engines under the wing
Airbus A320-214	2	180 economy or 8 business + 168 economy	CFM56-5B	Classic first-generation A320, not a neo

The A220-300 is now the backbone. The airline lists several cabin variants for it, from a version with twelve business seats to an all-economy cabin with 140 seats. The family’s engines come from Pratt & Whitney; problems with these geared turbofan engines also hit Cyprus Airways in 2024 and slowed expansion plans. The manufacturer of both types is Airbus.

With the A320 it pays to look closely: it is the older generation with CFM56 engines. How to tell it reliably from the neo version is shown in the guide A320neo or ceo?.

Route network

The network is built around Larnaca. In 2025, according to available overviews, destinations in Greece such as Athens, Heraklion, Rhodes and Santorini were included, along with Paris, Milan, Venice and Barcelona, and in the Middle East Beirut, Tel Aviv and Dubai. Charter flights are added, for example to Romania and Slovakia. The offering changes from season to season, though – especially in the Middle East, where political situations make routes pause at short notice. So check the current schedule before every trip.

There is no alliance. Instead Cyprus Airways has interline agreements, including with Middle East Airlines, Bulgaria Air and SKY express.

How to recognize Cyprus Airways

The two eras differ mainly in their livery:

Both share the Cypriot registration with 5B-. How registrations are structured and how you can use them to find out an aircraft’s age and history is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

The mouflon, by the way, is no random animal: the wild sheep occurs in Cyprus and is regarded as a symbol of the island. Photos of the old livery are in demand accordingly – if you enjoy classic color schemes, you will find more ideas in the article on retro liveries.

Spotting Cyprus Airways

The obvious place is Larnaca Airport. All of the airline’s aircraft are based here, and they come together in the morning and the evening. Particularly popular is Mackenzie Beach in Larnaca: the beach lies right in the approach path, so you can photograph landings from the beach bar. A second international airport on the island is Paphos, but other airlines dominate there.

Outside Cyprus you are most likely to meet Cyprus Airways at its destinations in Greece and Western Europe. If you are on the island anyway, a combination of beach day and spotting is worthwhile – tips are in the article Plane spotting on vacation.

Common mix-ups

• Equating the old and the new Cyprus Airways – today’s airline is a new company that only took over the name and codes.
• Overlooking a gap – between January 2015 and June 2017 no Cyprus Airways flew.
• Logging the A320 as an A320neo – Cyprus Airways flies first-generation A320s with CFM56 engines.
• Confusing the A220-300 with the A220-100 – at Cyprus Airways only the longer -300 flies; the shorter A220-100 is not part of the fleet.
• Logging Eurocypria or Hellas Jet as Cyprus Airways – both were independent subsidiaries with their own identity.
• Naming Nicosia as today’s base – the airport has been closed since 1974, and flying is from Larnaca.

Conclusion

Cyprus Airways is a name with two lives. The old state airline survived the colonial era, independence and the loss of its home base in 1974, but failed in 2015 because of losses and EU state aid law. The new Cyprus Airways carries on the brand and codes, but flies a small, modern Airbus fleet with a look of its own. For you as a spotter that means: note the date, type and tail – then every sighting is assigned unambiguously.