Govt insists Cypriot airspace is open

The government on Wednesday insisted that Cypriot airspace remained open, despite media reports that it had been closed.

A transport ministry spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail that Cypriot airspace remains open, but did not comment on reports that a passenger flight from Athens which was bound for Larnaca was turned back to its destination of origin.

Later on Wednesday, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis wrote in a post on social media that “the airspace of the Republic of Cyprus was not closed at any time”.

“As part of established procedures, two flights were requested to remain in holding patterns for a short period of time, so as to provide the necessary operational space” for the departure and manoeuvres of Greek F-16 fighter jets which were scrambled from Paphos to intercept of a suspicious object heading towards Cyprus in the skies above nearby Lebanon.

He added that “the captain of one of the two flights chose to return to Athens, while the second flight landed normally a short time later”, with Cypriot airspace now “continuing to operate normally”.

That flight, identified as Aegean Airlines flight 902, landed at Athens airport shortly before 11am. It is expected that it will depart for a second time at 11.45am.

Reuters had earlier reported that following the detection of a suspicious object close to Lebanese airspace, the government decided to close Cypriot airspace.

As of 11.10am, one British Boeing C-17 military transport jet was circling in the skies south of the United Kingdom’s Akrotiri air force base, while passenger jets headed towards both Paphos and Larnaca, as well as towards the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport, were taking off and landing as normal.

The alert regarding the suspicious had been raised at around 9.30am, and was lifted half an hour later, with it later being reported that two drones which were headed for the island had been intercepted by the Greek jets.