TRIP REPORT: Cyprus Airways, Beirut - Larnaca

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Written by Aэrologic

In general Beirut has a road network that puts any Ex-Yu city to shame. The whole city is covered by highways, freeways, tunnels and overpasses. Streets are wide, often one-directional allowing for very high speeds. On Sunday morning as the streets were completely empty we rushed towards the airport from North Beirut passing on the way through Hezbollah areas and checkpoints. The taxi dropped me right in-front of the terminal after another few checks on the entrance to the airport.

The flight I was about to take was the result of Cobalt's unfortunate demise where many airlines rushed to offer new charter flights to bring passengers back home. One of those was Cyprus Airways who added an additional flight this Sunday to cater for stranded passengers but surprisingly tickets were available in the GDS.

I spoke at length with Cyprus Airways station manager about the conditions of working in Lebanon and he said that developing transfer connections was a key element to their survival during the slow winter months.

Beirut Airport was stunning as always and it features five separate lounges the largest of which is by far the MEA lounge. The airport has recently made some headlines about the baggage system collapse and long queues since working at the capacity however that wasn't evident this Sunday morning.

Beirut Airport is a jewel of architecture from a period when austerity and cold metal-glass designs weren't the norm or a priority. The centrepiece of it is a SkyCourt like central area around which lounges are located. After Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion it's probably my favourite in terms of architecture.

Our aircraft on this day was an Airbus A319 5B-DCW with a relatively light load of about 40-50 passengers including the Cobalt pax. Beirut Airport offers a wide-variety for spotting among airlines and types. Next to us was a FlyDubai departing to Dubai.

Seats are of genuine leather reminiscent as well of older times. There was no service whatsoever on this almost 1 hour flight. We took off during a shower on this autumn morning and after a right turn over the Mediterranean we said farewell to Beirut.

The flight was uneventful while the crew was hit and miss. The purser was a genial and experienced lady while some of the staff displayed Aegean-like manners and stress. That included standing next to me until my seatbelt was fastened while descent hadn't even started.

On descent to Larnaca we were able to see six Cobalt aircraft parked that can be seen in the pictures.

On arrival in Larnaca, I visited the Cyprus Airways desk to report the single crew behaviour on which I won't elaborate this time. The arrival in Larnaca saw an unexpected visitor in the form of Pobeda.

I absolutely recommend Cyprus Airways for their website, purchase process, most of their crew and livery amongst other details.

Overall note 7/10.