The new Cypriot airline, Cobalt air announced today 14 routes to become available as soon as July. The president of the airline’s Board of Directors, Gregoris Diacou said today that the company will start flying on 1st June and within a month it will connect Cyprus with direct flights to Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania, London, Manchester, East Midlands, Glasgow, Cardiff, Dublin, Paris, Beirut, Tel Aviv and Tehran. Cobalt’s licensing process is in its final stages and will be expanding fleet and adding even more destinations by October. Mr Diacou added that the company believes in the capabilities of Cypriots and wanting to support the local economy has chosen to mostly hire Cypriots. A large percentage of Cobalt’s 145 strong work-force are ex-Cyprus Airways employees. The company has also plans to expand its reach in 2017 to destinations which were not traditionally directly connected to Cyprus such as China, India and USA.