Government to look into CA Brussels decision

By Jean Christou

GOVERNMENT ministers and bureaucrats will be badly affected by Cyprus Airways’ decision to drop its weekly Brussels flight, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said yesterday.

Cassoulides was commenting on the issue following a call for explanations by presidential candidate Alexis Galanos.

Galanos yesterday asked the Foreign and Finance Ministers why Cyprus Airways (CA) was axing its Brussels flight just as Cyprus was about to start EU accession talks.

The airline said on Wednesday it was dropping the weekly flight from Larnaca to Brussels, via Paphos, from April 1 after losing one million pounds on the route last year. Cyprus-EU accession talks are due to begin on or after March 31.

“It will cause many problems for us,” Cassoulides told the Cyprus Mail, referring to the numerous trips ministers and other government employees would have to make to the EU hub.

Cassoulides said he had only heard of the decision yesterday, but added it would be looked into.

And he admitted the CA move “might” create the wrong impression.

Galanos said yesterday the CA decision was another sign of the airline’s “folly”.

“It is also an indication of a complete lack of co-ordination and planning in promoting our national aims and aspirations,” Galanos said in a written statement.

“Regardless of any economic problems our national carrier is facing on the Brussels route, on the eve of the start of accession talks, it gives an entirely negative political message to Brussels.”

Galanos added such decisions “should not and cannot” be taken purely on economic grounds.

He questioned the extent to which both the Foreign and Finance Ministries had been aware of the CA decision, and asked for explanations.

The Brussels route has been operational for only five years.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.