Cyprus Airways Last Takeoff Larnaca Airport

Cyprus Airways Last Takeoff – Airline Closed – Larnaca Airport – ATC – Plane Spotting – Startup

After 68 years of pride, the Era of Cyprus Airways came to an end on Friday, 9 January 2015. On Sunday, the whole fleet, which was grounded, was flown back to England to their previous owner. This was the last departure of the whole row of the fleet, made by 5B-DCH. It was also the last takeoff of a Cyprus Airways aircraft from its home country, Cyprus, and the last time such an aircraft was spotted there. The previous four, taking off before this one, were 5B-DCJ, 5B-DCK, 5B-DCM and 5B-DCL (from Lebanon due to checks). The A320 seen parked at the apron was the only one owned by the airline, the historical 5B-DBB, which will stay there, frozen in time, waiting for a better future, facing the danger of being sold for spare parts or even scrapping… By far the most touching takeoff I have ever filmed since I first started plane spotting and one of the most tragic days of my 16 years of life, seeing the Cyprus Airways aircraft in the skies for the LAST TIME in my life… Praying that I will live on this planet to see the Cypriot mouflon (logo of CY) in the skies again, and even fulfill my dream in working as a pilot for this airline, hoping that it will reopen in another name soon…
It was an early morning wakeup for me to get to the airport on time… Initially, I just stared at the fleet of CY, wondering how we ended up in this situation. All the airplanes of my dreams, GROUNDED, waiting for the crew to come to take them on their last ever flight… One after another, the aircraft requested their clearances, started up, taxied to the runway and took of, with the pilots constantly making the mistake of starting their callsign with “Cyprus” instead of the aircraft’s registration, as they had been doing for years… Only that brought tears to my eyes, reminding me that it’s no ordinary day, no ordinary flight, that it’s all over, it’s the final goodbye. As mentioned before, the most touching takeoff was of course the last one, seen in this video, which includes all radio communication with Air Traffic Control during IFR clearance, startup, taxi, takeoff, climb, and handoff to Nicosia ACC… It was a tragic irony the pilot requested a photo while taxiing, I wish I could speak to him. I hope that with this video you can all feel the big loss that Cyprus has encountered. As mentioned in a previous video of mine “68 years of history are too deeply ingrained to be wiped out”. Indeed.