Cobalt air will be flying to 16 cities from Larnaca when it begins operations, while the first of its three Airbuses will arrive within the next few days, chairman Grigoris Diakou said on Friday.

“Our aim is to begin flights to 16 cities. We will often fly to Greek destinations with a focus on Athens,” he told staff during a training session.

The company seeks to tap into markets in Western Europe and the Middle East and aims by the summer of 2017 to expand operations connecting Cyprus to destinations like China, India, South Africa and North America using Airbus A330.

For now, it has ordered three Airbus A320S, the first of which will arrive in Cyprus within the next few days.

“The operating model of our company will be low-cost plus” and by the time it begins operations, “we will have hired a total of 60 people, the majority of which will be Cypriots,” he said.

COBALT is currently thinking of creating a base in Greece at a later stage, Diakou added.

“We believe we can serve passengers better with bases in Greece and Cyprus.”