VERTICALLY INCREASED TRAFFIC AND REVENUE AT FIR [Flight Information Region] NICOSIA

 Filenews 16 October 2020 - by Petros Theoharidis

The collateral benefits for Cyprus from the agreements recently signed by Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are very great, due to a small but important detail: the opening of Israel's skies for flights from these countries.

This may also mean an increase in air traffic in Fir Nicosia by several dozen and perhaps hundreds of planes every day, while increasing both the tasks of cyprus' air traffic control sector, but also a few tens of additional millions of euros of collection for the state through the rights for these flights.

To allow flights through the U.S. and Bahrain to pass through Israel, Israel and Jordan, which is also positively affected, signed last Thursday an interstate agreement, which provides for the opening of Israeli airspace, for flights originating in or bound for Jordanian airspace.

In particular, Israel signed an air deal with Jordan that would allow flights from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to fly through Israeli airspace. This means that planes coming from Emirates and Bahrain will pass through the Jordanian and Israeli Firs and enter the Fir Nicosia.

Such an agreement has been under discussion for years, but Israel and Jordan were only able to complete it after Israel and the two Gulf Arab states signed a historic agreement last month to normalize their relations with Israel.

From the day the agreement enters into force and commercial aircraft will now be able to fly through the Israel-Jordan corridor, flight times for certain routes between Asia and Europe and North America will be significantly shorter.

Today, most flights from the airports of these countries and vice versa are forced to fly much further east, from Iraq and cross turkey's eastern border after Syria is also avoided. Conservatively it can be estimated that in Fir Nicosia overflights, which normally reach 1,000 a day in the summer season, will double.

Eurocontrol has made a catalytic contribution to the achievement of the agreement. Through Fir Nicosia, the planes will travel about 500 km. on each flight and the airlines will pay the fees for the services provided to them by the Cypriot air traffic control services, arranged through Eurocontrol.