Hi

News out today has revealed that the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has been given the go ahead from the EU to provide support to airlines to introduce new routes to the island. Don't expect any results in the short term but it report that new deals could be negotiated with low cost airlines such as easyjet and ryanair.

The copy of the article below for those interested:

Noreen



The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has reportedly been given the go ahead from the EU to provide support to airlines to introduce new routes to the island. The move from the EU and the Cypriot government is part of a strategy to bring in more tourists to help boost its flagging industry.

“It’s a new scheme and it’s a transparent one, which is applicable to all European airlines, not just low-cost carriers,” said CTO director general Phoebe Katsouri in an interview with the Cyprus Mail. The CTO revealed that it had been working for months to secure the deal with the EU, which bans direct subsidies to the airline industry from countries within the Union.

Katsouri stopped short of saying the Cypriot government would be providing economic support to airlines interested in establishing new routes, however she said interested parties would receive marketing support from the CTO. “We formulated a scheme which complies with EU directives and regulations and now we have the green light.”

Under EU rules, support to airlines can be given for between three and five years and the carriers must commit to year round flights to the island. The scheme came about after the CTO had a study carried out that determined the biggest obstacle facing Cyprus tourism was accessibility by air. Last month, Ryanair said that it was unhappy with the flight taxes charged on routes departing Cyprus and that it would not start offering flights to the country until these were lowered.

Katsouri said she was in the process of negotiating new deals with several airlines and that Ryanair and easyJet were two of them. However, the new routes to the island, if taken up by EU airlines, will not be implemented before next year. “The earliest would be winter 2008 - 2009 and even that is doubtful,” Katsouri said. “But this is a chance, and we are doing our utmost not to waste any time. From 2009, there will be concrete results.”