Cyprus International Airways - Late 60s to 1974 Fleet.

Cyprus International entered the Jet Age with two state of the art narrow bodies, starting in the late 60s after leasing de Havilland Comets from British partners, it placed an order for 6 Hawker Siddeley Tridents along with leasing 2 DC-9's from Greek airlines Hellas Airways after being repainted into the company copper orange and blue colours with stylised olive branch on the tail.

The Airline operated its fleet from Nicosia International Airport profiting from the boom in travel happening in the 70s with Cyprus tourism however, would see extremely turbulent years first from political instability in Cyprus followed by the Turkish Invasion in July 1974 which saw the airline's fleet become a casualty of the fighting.

Both DC-9s left for Greece prior to the invasion while only one of the Tridents escaped and was overseas at the time. The remaining 5 were stranded at the airport with 1 destroyed and another severely damaged by arms fire. The remaining 3 were flown out by British engineers in 1977 after being unable to leave before the start of hostilities.

The company was able to restart operations at Larnaca in 1975 using BAC 1-11s as replacements for its lost fleet and would restore most routes by the end of the decade.

Next era is in the works, be dropping soon