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Eerie photos unveil abandoned Nicosia International Airport in Cyprus - with planes still rotting on the runway

Isabella Boneham
·4-min read
Eerie photos unveil abandoned airport with planes rotting on runway. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)
Eerie photos unveil abandoned airport with planes rotting on runway. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

A desolate, abandoned airport in Cyprus has been pictured with planes left rotting on the runway.

The airport, just shy of 10km west of the Cypriot capital city of Nicosia, has been untouched for 50 years and eerie photos show what it looks like now.

Nicosia International Airport is barren, but remnants of its past still remain with dusty chairs and old plans left on the tarmac.

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SONIA WOLF Bird droppings cover seats in the departure lounge inside the old Nicosia airport terminal building, now located within the UN-controlled buffer zone that separates the Turkish-occupied north from the south of Cyprus, on September 14, 2010. To mark the International Day of Peace, UNFICYP is organising a Cyprus Peace Concert at the decaying terminal that has been closed since the 1974 Turkish invasion of North Cyprus. AFP PHOTO/MONA BOSHNAQ (Photo credit should read MONA BOSHNAQ/AFP via Getty Images)

It was constructed in the 1930s, used as the country’s main Royal Air Force station, but stopped commercial flights following the Turkish invasion in 1974.

The airport now looks like something you would see in a zombie apocalypse film.

When it was open the airport’s facilities were limited, comprising of three huts to form the main terminal with Customs, Immigration, Civil Aviation, Signals, Traffic and Operational Services.

The site and runway were extended during the Second World War.

NICOSIA, CYPRUS - MARCH 07: The former main terminal at Nicosia International Airport stands decaying inside the buffer zone on the southern, Greek side of the divided city on March 7, 2017 in Nicosia, Cyprus. The airport was abandoned following the ceasefire of the 1974 war and today stands derelict. Nicosia, the Cypriotic capital, has been divided into a Greek south and Turkish north ever since the brief but devastating war of 1974. Since then United Nations peacekeepers have maintained a buffer zone that runs through the city and across the entire island to keep the factions apart. In the south the Greek-dominated Republic of Cyprus is internationally-recognized and a member of the European Union, while in the north the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) is recognized only by Turkey, which also has tens of thousands of troops stationed there. Negotiations over possible reunification have made strident progress over the last few years, though they have stalled in recent months. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Between 1943 and 1944, American bombers used the runway as they returned from the Allied bombings of the Romanian oil fields.

By 1948, Misrair, BOAC, Cyprus Airways and MEA all operated from Nicosia.

The last commercial flights took off from the runway in 1977 under United Nations (UN) Special Authorisation amid the Turkish War. The airport had become a site of intense fighting between Cypriot and Turkish forces.

A ceasefire was signed in August 1974, allowing the airport to integrate as part of the UN-controlled Buffer Zone which served to separate the two communities.

NICOSIA, CYPRUS - MARCH 07: Family members of United Nations peacekeepers jog past a decaying and abandoned passenger plane of Cyprus Airways at Nicosia International Airport inside the buffer zone on the southern, Greek side of the divided city on March 7, 2017 in Nicosia, Cyprus. The airport was abandoned following the ceasefire of the 1974 war and today stands derelict. Nicosia, the Cypriotic capital, has been divided into a Greek south and Turkish north ever since the brief but devastating war of 1974. Since then United Nations peacekeepers have maintained a buffer zone that runs through the city and across the entire island to keep the factions apart. In the south the Greek-dominated Republic of Cyprus is internationally-recognized and a member of the European Union, while in the north the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) is recognized only by Turkey, which also has tens of thousands of troops stationed there. Negotiations over possible reunification have made strident progress over the last few years, though they have stalled in recent months. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Nowadays there are UN helicopters based at the site and there are recreational facilities for UN personnel.

Shrapnel now lines the floors where holidaymakers once queued. Visitors to the island at the time would have included the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot.

According to UN Law, Cyprus is recognised as the territory of the Republic of Cyprus under Turkish occupation.

However, under international law, Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus is considered illegal, with no country other than the Republic of Turkey currently recognising Northern Cyprus as a sovereign state.

The island has been occupied by an array of different powers across history, including the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians and Romans.