Cyprus has never owned a fighter, and Andreas Papandreou Air Base was not built to change that. It was built so that Greece’s could land. The base grew out of the Joint Defence Doctrine that Nicosia and Athens signed in 1993, and it sits on the north-eastern side of Paphos International Airport, sharing the civil runway. The Cyprus Mail reported that the contractors handed it to the defence ministry’s technical staff on 24 January 1998 “without a hint of ceremony”, and that it was “designed to serve Greek military aircraft”.

President Glafcos Clerides proposed naming it after Andreas Papandreou, the late Greek prime minister who, with Clerides, had launched the defence doctrine. Defence minister George Charalambides called it “clearly a defensive work” for use only if Cyprus were attacked. The Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash threatened to “break the wings” of any aircraft that took off from it, and the Turkish foreign ministry said it would bring the matter to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council.

The base proved its purpose within five months. A Greek C-130 landed on Monday 15 June 1998, and at about 10 am the next day four Greek F-16s touched down; all five aircraft had left for Greece before 2 pm. The Cyprus Mail noted that Paphos had also been designated as the home of the Russian S-300 missiles then due on the island. Defence minister Yiannakis Omirou said the landing proved the base “operationally ready” and carried a political message about the doctrine with Greece.

Turkey’s foreign ministry called the use of the base by Greek aircraft “an extremely grave and provocative development”. Two days later, around noon on 18 June, six Turkish F-16s landed at Lefkoniko airfield in the north; Denktash described it as “merely restoring the equilibrium on the island”. The S-300s never came to Paphos: according to English Wikipedia, citing The Guardian of 30 December 1998, the missiles went to Crete instead.

What the base did acquire was the Air Command’s heaviest punch. English Wikipedia says Cyprus bought twelve new Mi-35P attack helicopters, serials 811 to 822, from Russia in 2001–2002. Aeroflight places 450 Squadron at Paphos from May 2002, when the old Helicopter-Seaplane Squadron was split in two, with the Mi-35Ps alongside the two PC-9 trainers and, until 2012, a single BN-2 Islander.

The Hinds were never a comfortable fit for a small island force. On 5 July 2006 one crashed shortly after leaving the base, killing both crew. In 2022 Cyprus signed for six Airbus H145Ms, with an option on six more, to replace the eleven surviving Mi-35s, and AP reported that Serbia was interested in buying them; the first two H145Ms were delivered on 26 March 2025. Where the new helicopters are based is not stated in the sources checked. English Wikipedia also says the Gazelle anti-tank helicopters moved here when Lakatamia closed in April 2013, a claim resting on a hobbyist site and contradicted by Aeroflight.

In the 2020s the base became a staging post for other people’s aircraft. Eight Saudi Hawks and two C-130s refuelled here on 26 May 2023. On 23 January 2025 a US Air Force contingency response assessment team visited to study upgrades to airport operations, logistics and communications, with Washington offering to cover part or all of the cost; the government insisted the base would stay under Cypriot control.

When Iranian-made drones struck the region in March 2026, Paphos airport’s terminal was evacuated on 2 March after a suspicious object appeared on radar, and the deputy government spokesman said on 3 March that there were no American aircraft at the base. Greece sent F-16s the same month. Cyprus Mail, citing Proto Thema, reported in May that two would be stationed at Paphos, and in August defence minister Vasilis Palmas confirmed they were flying from Andreas Papandreou under existing bilateral protocols, while stressing that the deployment is temporary.