Tickets to Europe for residents of Cyprus may become more expensive, and some flights may disappear. The reason is the reform of the European Commission, which cuts state support for airports and airlines, writes Philenews. For an island without a road or rail connection to the mainland, this is not a matter of convenience, but of survival.

The passenger’s wallet will be the first to suffer

If the support tools are cut without taking into account the specifics of the islands, the difference will eventually be included in the ticket price. Tourists, students and employees who simply have no alternative will be the first to feel this: there is no way to get to continental Europe from Cyprus either by car or by train.

Air traffic operates here as motorways and railways that connect the mainland EU countries, that is, as a basic infrastructure for citizens, tourism and the economy. Therefore, the dispute, which for other European capitals looks like a technical formality, for Nicosia is about everyday life.

What is Brussels changing?

The European Commission is reviewing the rules for state assistance to the aviation industry — when and how the state can support airports and new airlines. The draft was published on May 11, 2026, replacing the 2014 rules; the new rules will apply to decisions after April 3, 2027.

The course is clear — there is less budget money in the industry. Operational assistance will be left to airports for no more than 1 million passengers (transitionally, until April 2032), then only up to 500,000. But the most sensitive thing for connectivity is another thing: the initial incentives for new routes are completely canceled — according to the logic of Brussels, the market opens them without government money. At the same time, the airport’s “zone of influence” is being expanded, according to which competition is assessed, from 100 km (or 60 minutes) to 150 km (90 minutes).

The scale that explains the anxiety

The numbers show what’s at stake. In 2025, the airports of Larnaca and Paphos received a record 10.7 million passengers — 7.7 million from Larnaca and 3 million from Paphos. For a country with a population of about 920,000, this is more than 11 passengers per inhabitant, a ratio that is almost nowhere to be found in the EU.

Tourism, which arrives almost exclusively by air, accounted for about 14% of GDP in 2025, and the entire “tourism economy” accounted for more than a fifth. To lose connectivity here means to hit the entire economy at once.

What is Nicosia trying to achieve?

Cyprus submitted a position with six proposals in Brussels in order not to be isolated. The main thing is to officially recognize the airports of Larnaca and Paphos as an infrastructure of territorial cohesion, along with highways on the mainland; the European Commission already calls Cyprus a “remote region”.

In addition, Nicosia requests that the incentives for new routes, especially winter routes, be preserved for the islands.;

introduce a fair criterion of “passengers per inhabitant”;

Extend the transition period for “green” requirements until 2035;

to free the island from checking the “proximity” to foreign airports, which makes no sense for an island without land connections.;

and simplify ticket subsidies for students, employees, and professionals who regularly fly to Europe. Everything will be decided in Brussels until the new rules come into force in April 2027.

https://lenta.cy/reforma-es-grozit-kipru-dorogimi-biletami-i-izoljaciej/