EasyJet has increased its connections to and from Cyprus with the launch of a new flight from Paphos to Edinburgh yesterday, which is set to fly twice weekly. With the addition of the new connection to Edinburgh, the airline aims to increase the number of new destinations with direct flights in their Cyprus network.

"Cyprus constitutes an important section of our European network, with great potential to grow. This is confirmed by the company's journey so far in Cyprus," said Stefanos Vakitzis, regional operations manager for EasyJet.

The new flights will run on Wednesdays and Saturdays with fares starting at €38 one-way.

Th airline, which is one of the biggest in Europe and famous for its cheap tickets, began to meet the needs of passengers in Cyprus in 2008, with four routes from Paphos to London Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Bristol and one from Larnaca to London Gatwick. Since then there has been a steady increase in passenger movement to and from Cyprus each year. Between October 2009 and September 2010, EasyJet flew more than 480,000 passengers to and from both Larnaca and Paphos airports.

Even though at present there is only one route from Larnaca-to London Gatwick- EasyJet has no plans to increase the number of routes from Larnaca. "It is too expensive to have flights from both Paphos and Larnaca, " said Vakirtzis.

Figures which are released on a yearly basis show that there are a greater number of foreign passengers flying to and from Cyprus. The ratio of foreigners to Cypriot passengers is 75 per cent to 25 per cent respectively. "Our priority is tourists and those coming into the airport", added Vakirtzis.