Flights to Cyprus....

[smudge]

Our friends have just moved into their newly built house in Paralimni, Cyprus & invited us, my sister & her husband over for a two week holiday, some time late Feb, early March.

Although we've been to Cyprus 12 times now, each time has been on a package holiday.

Does anyone know the best place buy flight only tickets online please?

Many thanks in advance.

[tickledtrout]

The best flights I got last time was with Mytravel but they are all very similar

[smudge]

Many thanks tickle, I'm searching at the mo', so will give that a go too.

[steve2010]

where from,what airport.

[smudge]

We live in South Beds Steve, so Luton Airport would be more convenient for us.

[Buenchico]

First, the bad news:
The problem of cheap flights to Cyprus, during winter schedules, has come up before. There are actually very few options open to you.

Since the failure of Cyprus's own budget airline (Ajet), the only scheduled services from the UK to Cyprus are with these operators:

BA (Heathrow to Larnaca) - currently in the middle of an industrial dispute, so I wouldn't recommend booking with them.

GB Airways (Stansted & Manchester to Paphos). This is the budget arm of BA, so it's possible that their cabin crew could be involved in the same industrial dispute. Additionally, Paphos is about 2 hours additional drive from Paralimni. Larnaca is far more convenient.

Cyprus Airways - See below.

Eurocypria. This is the budget arm of Cyprus Airways but their UK flights (from Gatwick, Humberside & Manchester) only operate from May to October.

Several charter companies (including MyTravel) operate to Cyprus but, to the best of my knowledge, there are no winter flights. (MyTravel doesn't have flights until 1st May).

So it looks as if you'll have to travel with Cyprus Airways.

And now the good news!
Trying some sample dates on the Cyprus Airways website (and choosing Tuesdays because that's often the cheapest day to travel), I found that the four of you can travel for a total of CYP646. That's equivalent to �141.50 per person, including all taxes and charges.
That's flying out from Heathrow, on 27/02, at 0945 (landing at 1610) and returning from Larnaca, on 13/03, at 1745 (landing at 2045).

I've not tried every possible combination of dates, so it's possible that you might even be able to travel slightly cheaper:
http://www.cyprusairways.com/

Chris

[smudge]

Wow Chris, thank you so much for your informative reply!

We have flown from Luton to Paphos airport many times, as we found Paphos to be our favourite holiday destination! We've also flown to Larnarca airport, as we've stayed in Protaras & Paralimni too.

We were rather hoping to fly from Luton to Larnarca this time, but if we have to travel to Heathrow or another airport, we won't really mind.

Although our husbands are both early birds, my sister & I wouldn't want early morning flights as we're both night owls, but I'm sure we'll be able to find something to suit.

I'll take a look on that website now.....

Many thanks again.

[steve2010]

you have the option of birmingham or east midlands airport,which are not that far away,try thompsonfly, first choice,thomas cook, or even xl.com,they all fly to paphos and larnaca,but it might be a bit restricted in the early months of the year.we fly to paphos quite a lot as we too have a place there,and find you can usually find something in the region of �129 ish,hope that helps.

[smudge]

Thank you very much for your help too steve2010 - I will have a look at all those options.

You are so lucky having a holiday home in Paphos. We've been talking about selling up & moving out there for years, but we just can't leave our two daughters & Grandchildren behind as we are all very close.

Having said that, our friends W & J will try their upmost to talk my sister, bro-in-law & us to share the 'good life' with them!

Thanks again.

[smudge]

Back again - we've mentioned to my sis & bro-in-law that it would be better to go in March/April as it'll be much warmer then - as we have found in the past.

At least we'll have a bit longer to prepare now!