A new Cyprus-based airline, Cobalt Air, will begin operations in the spring and offer flights throughout Europe, the company’s chief said.

“The idea behind Cobalt is that we would try to fill that gap that wasn’t served, even by Cyprus Airways. Not only to look at Cyprus as the destination, but to turn it into a hub, focused very much on transit passengers,” Chief Commercial Officer Michael Hayden told the daily Cyprus Mail in a recent interview.

“We’re not going to offer the same product as, say, Ryanair, Wizzair or EasyJet,” said Hayden, who has worked at Dobrolet, Avianova, Jazeera Airways and EUJet.

The company – which had planned to launch last year – wants to plug the gap left by Cyprus Airways – the airline, which once dominated the local air travel market but closed a year after the European Union said it couldn’t subsist without unlawful state subsidies.

Last month TUS Airways – a brand new operator – received an air transport licence and is operating only short routes up to two hours long with aircraft holding only 34 passengers, based in Larnaca.