Cobalt (Larnaca) is set to make its African debut towards the end of the year, the Cypriot hybrid carrier's Egyptian GSA has revealed.

Speaking to Al Shorouk newspaper this week, Elhamy El Zayat said Cobalt had filed an application with the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation to start 4x weekly Larnaca-Cairo International flights beginning in early November. The route will primarily target European vacationers who visit Cyprus and who may be interested in onward excursions to North Africa.

The ch-aviation schedules module shows that despite its proximity to the African mainland, and with a sizeable expatriate community resident on the continent, Cyprus has very weak commercial aviation ties to Africa with EgyptAir the only operator in the market. At present, it plies a daily Cairo-Larnaca return service using its EgyptAir Express unit's E170s.

For its part, Cobalt operates two A319-100s and four A320-200s on scheduled flights to 23 cities across the Middle East, Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean basin, and Russia.