An all-too-common winter weather pattern struck again at dawn on 15 February when a bank of coastal fog cut runway visibility at Larnaca International Airport to below CAT I minima. Air-traffic control diverted three inbound flights—including an Aegean Airlines A320 from Athens—130 kilometres west to Paphos, where conditions were clear.
The disruption, though brief, created a domino effect for morning connections. Passengers were held on board for roughly an hour before the fog lifted and aircraft repositioned to Larnaca. Hermes Airports praised ground teams at Paphos for activating an ad-hoc Schengen–non-Schengen segregation plan that allowed travellers to disembark if necessary without triggering passport-control bottlenecks.
![Dense Morning Fog Forces Diversion of Inbound Flights From Larnaca to Paphos]()
While weather disruptions can’t be controlled, travel documentation certainly can be. VisaHQ’s Cyprus portal (https://www.visahq.com/cyprus/) streamlines visa procurement and offers real-time updates on entry requirements, giving corporate travel managers one less variable to worry about when rerouting staff at short notice.
For corporate travel planners, the incident is a reminder that, unlike many European hubs, Cyprus operates with limited parallel-runway redundancy. A weather-related closure at one airport can quickly stress the other. Contingency itineraries that include surface transfers or alternative connections via Athens or Istanbul can help mitigate delay-related costs.
Meteorological data show that fog events have increased by 12 per cent over the past five years, a trend aviation analysts attribute to warmer sea-surface temperatures. With climate variability likely to fuel further unpredictability, companies should factor in higher buffer times for early-morning arrivals during January–March.
The disruption, though brief, created a domino effect for morning connections. Passengers were held on board for roughly an hour before the fog lifted and aircraft repositioned to Larnaca. Hermes Airports praised ground teams at Paphos for activating an ad-hoc Schengen–non-Schengen segregation plan that allowed travellers to disembark if necessary without triggering passport-control bottlenecks.
While weather disruptions can’t be controlled, travel documentation certainly can be. VisaHQ’s Cyprus portal (https://www.visahq.com/cyprus/) streamlines visa procurement and offers real-time updates on entry requirements, giving corporate travel managers one less variable to worry about when rerouting staff at short notice.
For corporate travel planners, the incident is a reminder that, unlike many European hubs, Cyprus operates with limited parallel-runway redundancy. A weather-related closure at one airport can quickly stress the other. Contingency itineraries that include surface transfers or alternative connections via Athens or Istanbul can help mitigate delay-related costs.
Meteorological data show that fog events have increased by 12 per cent over the past five years, a trend aviation analysts attribute to warmer sea-surface temperatures. With climate variability likely to fuel further unpredictability, companies should factor in higher buffer times for early-morning arrivals during January–March.
