Flights to Cyprus: Larnaca, Paphos and Ercan compared
Last verified 30 September 2026
Cyprus has three airports that matter to visitors, and they are not interchangeable. Larnaca (Larnaka) and Paphos (Pafos, Baf) serve the south with direct flights from across the UK. Ercan serves the north and can only be reached through Turkey, a fact with practical and legal consequences that catch people out every season. Here is how the three compare and how to choose.
Larnaca: the main gateway
Larnaca is the island’s biggest airport and the default arrival for UK visitors. At the time of verification the direct UK line-up was broad: easyJet from Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast; Jet2 from Manchester, Stansted, Birmingham, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol and East Midlands; TUI from a similar spread; Wizz Air from Gatwick and Luton; and British Airways from Heathrow. Gatwick, Luton and Heathrow run year-round; much of the rest is seasonal, thick from spring to autumn and thin in winter. The flight takes about four and three quarter hours, and car hire at Larnaca is the most competitive on the island. Larnaca also works perfectly well as the arrival for a north-focused trip: the nearest crossing points are around an hour away, and Kyrenia (Keryneia, Girne) is reachable in under two.
Paphos: the western option
Paphos is the second airport, out west and handy for Coral Bay, Polis (Polis Chrysochous, Poli) and the western resorts. It is a budget-airline stronghold: Ryanair, Jet2 and easyJet dominate, from a wide range of UK airports, again heavily seasonal. If your holiday is west of Limassol (Lemesos, Limasol), Paphos saves you a ninety-minute transfer; for Nicosia (Lefkosia, Lefkoşa), Ayia Napa (Agia Napa, Aya Napa) or anything cross-line it is the wrong end of the island.
Ercan: the north’s airport, via Turkey
Ercan, twenty minutes from north Nicosia, is a different proposition entirely. Because only Turkey recognises the administration that runs it, no airline flies there from anywhere except Turkey. The carriers are Turkish: Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, AJet and SunExpress, connecting through Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya and Izmir. From the UK that means one stop, a London to Istanbul leg and then ninety minutes on to Ercan, with realistic door-to-door times of eight to ten hours against Larnaca’s five. Fares can undercut the direct flights, particularly outside school holidays, and the connections are frequent and well-drilled rather than exotic.
The catch is not the journey; it is the paperwork logic. The Republic of Cyprus regards Ercan as an unauthorised point of entry, which matters the moment you want to cross to the south or care about a clean record with an EU state. For a holiday spent wholly in the north it is usually the convenient choice; for anything involving both sides, fly into the south and cross instead.
What’s changing this winter
Two things worth flagging if you are booking ahead. Cyprus Airways added two new winter routes from Larnaca: to Rome from 11 December and to Munich from 17 December, both twice weekly, alongside an extra weekly Heraklion service from 28 October. The airline does not fly direct to the UK, but the new routes widen the options if you are happy to connect through Europe rather than book direct. Separately, Larnaca and Paphos are both due automated e-gates by the end of 2026, replacing the existing passport scanners, part of the run-up to Cyprus’s expected entry into Schengen. That decision was expected at the EU Council in September 2026 but was not on the agenda, Russian visa policy took priority after a drone incident at Leipzig airport, so there is no fixed date now. Worth knowing too that an e-gate or a paid airport fast-track lane is not the same thing as Schengen membership: fast-track services at Larnaca speed up security, not passport control, and a flight onward to mainland Europe still crosses an external Schengen border until accession actually happens.
Choosing in one paragraph
South-only trip: Larnaca, or Paphos if you are staying out west. Trip covering both sides: Larnaca, without hesitation. North-only trip: Ercan for the shortest transfer and the option of a car delivered to the terminal, accepting the extra flight time, or Larnaca plus an hour’s drive if you would rather fly direct and keep every option open. Whichever you book, remember the seasonal pattern: winter schedules shrink at all three airports, and the cheap seats at all of them go to whoever books first.