Mandria Highway strip

34°42'45"N 032°32'57"E

runway: 12/30 - 2400x00m - Asphalt

Mandria Highway strip (possibly called the Paphos Highway strip) is an emergency airfield in Cyprus.
The airfield was built after the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974, when the country was effectively left without a major airfield. To prevent such an event from ever happening again, the Cyprus government not only built two new international airfields (and a national airfield), but also some runways intended for emergency use (i.e. war). The Mandria Highway strip is located about 6 kilometers (midpoint-to-midpoint) east of Paphos International Airport/Papandreou AFB. It probably serves as a 'third runway' for Paphos/Papandreou AFB (which itself already has an unofficial secondary runway built into its taxitrack).

The airstip is oriented NE-SE and has two aircraft parkings on both ends. Those on the south lane are slightly offset to the southeast. Additionally what appears to be a carpark (in reality a weighing station for trucks) is found on both lanes at the southeast side large enough to handle fighter jets. Peter Thorold emailed me to report that the brigde over a dry river bed in the center of the runway is of massive construction, comparable to what he has seen at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. This should allow the airfield to handle at least medium sized freighter aircraft. I have not found any references to the airfield ever having been used.


Mandria Highway strip in 2006 (Google Earth)


In 2007 some access roads were added, one to the northern car parking and one (not visible) slightly east of the southeasternmost aircraft parking (Google Earth)


Video by Richard Flagg, who visited the airstrip in November 2015 to shoot this video for UKAirfields. The drive is heading east, from the western parking to the east parking on the northern lane


Transition of the emergency airfield into a regular highway on the southeast end of the runway (UKAirfields).