Cyprus Airways en route for a profitable 1998

CYPRUS Airways yesterday reported operating profits of £13.6 million in the first nine months of 1998, up from £7.5 million in the same period last year. Results for the whole of 1998 will show profits for the first time since 1995, but they will not be as impressive as those of the January- September period, which included the peak of the tourist season, the national carrier said.

The £13.6-million pre-tax profit reflects the performance of the Cyprus Airways Group minus its subsidiary the Cyprus Airways Duty Free Ltd. The later made a profit of £2.03 million in the January-September period on sales of £24.5 million, up from £773,000 in the corresponding period of 1997.

The group’s revenues for the nine-month period totalled £115.2 million, up from £105.4 million, representing an increase of 9.3 per cent.

Cyprus Airways and its sister charter company, Eurocypria, carried a total of 1.36 million passengers during the period in question, an increase of 107,120 over the first nine months of 1997.

The number of passengers travelling on the airline’s routes to Dutch, German and Greek destinations registered the highest increases – by 32.9 per cent, 12.9 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

For Eurocypria, its journeys to Ireland, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Britain were the busiest.

The government owns an 80 per cent majority in Cyprus Airways, but must dilute its stake in the company by March next year under stock market regulations.

Notorious for its poor management-unions relations, the company has said that it wants to join one of the global alliances recently to emerge in Europe, North America and the Far East. It is also seeking a “strategic buyer,” preferably a major Western European airline, to take a stake in the company.

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.