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Cyprus Transportation
![[PDF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pdf.gif)
Figure 9. Transportation System, 1990
The transportation system in the government-controlled
area was
well developed
(see
fig. 9). The road network was
satisfactory for
passenger and freight traffic. In 1989 the
government-controlled
area had 9,824 kilometers of roads, of which 5,240
kilometers were
asphalted or tarred and 4,584 kilometers were dirt or
gravel. An
expressway linked the major port town of Limassol with the
capital,
and in 1990 work was underway on a highway to Paphos and
Larnaca
from this road. There were no railroads in Cyprus.
At the time of the Turkish invasion, the country's main
airport
was the Nicosia International Airport. It was closed after
the
Turkish invasion of 1974, however, because it was located
on the
Attila Line that divided the island. It was replaced by
international airports at Larnaca and Paphos. Passenger
arrivals at
these two airports totaled 2,900,000 in 1989. In 1990
about thirty
airlines offered more than 100 scheduled flights per week
from
Larnaca to Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle
East, and
the Persian Gulf. A number of charter passenger and
freight flights
were also available. Cyprus Airways, the country's
national
airline, was both publicly and privately owned. It
operated about
a dozen large aircraft at the beginning of the 1990s.
The de facto division of Cyprus closed Famagusta, then
the
island's main port. Larnaca and Limassol took its place.
Both ports
were modernized and fitted with late-design container and
breakbulk facilities that permitted them to warehouse goods and
function
as major container transshipment centers in the eastern
Mediterranean. Transit cargoes enjoyed special treatment,
including
minimal customs formalities, free trade facilities, and
special
rates for long-term storage. In addition to these two
ports, the
island had the smaller ports of Paphos and Vasilikos and
three oil
terminals for importing petroleum. About 100 shipping
lines
included Cyprus in their regular schedules. In 1989, 5,678
ships,
totaling 14.8 million net registered tons, called at
Cypriot ports.
During the 1980s, Cyprus became a major shipping nation,
moving
from twenty-ninth place in the early 1980s, in terms of
registered
tonnage, to seventh place, with close to 2,000 ships
totaling 18.5
million gross tons. Most were foreign-owned.
Data as of January 1991
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