By Jean Christou
LANDING fees for airlines are to be scrapped at the island’s two airports until the end of May in a bid to boost flagging tourism in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
The £8 passenger tax for outgoing travelers would also be abolished for April and May next year, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Nicos Rolandis said yesterday.
The move comes as British tour giants slash capacity for next summer because of a fifty per cent drop in bookings compared to the same period last year.
The government has been racing to put together a package of measures worth over £20 million in a bid to save the island’s tourism industry. The measures include an additional £4 million for advertising for 2002 on top of the usual £13 million.
Scrapping the landing fees and passenger tax, which is added to the cost of every plane ticket, will cost the government a further £5.5 million and the measure will come into effect as soon as it is approved by parliament, Rolandis said.
It is designed to encourage more tour operators and airlines to include Cyprus on their itineraries.
” This move will also benefit Cypriots travelling out of Cyprus,”Rolandis said.
” Under the state aid legislation of the European Union, we cannot differentiate between tourists and locals. If we impose a measure and abolish taxation it has to be for everyone.”
But Rolandis pointed that 80-85 per cent of the outgoing traffic at the chosen time of the year was made up of tourists.
He said that of the £5.5 million approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, £4 million would cover the cost of subsidising the passenger tax and the remainder the landing fees.
Landing fees in Cyprus are the cheapest in Europe, ranging from £150-£200 per landing, depending on the size and type of the aircraft.
” This means that a tour operator landing its aircraft in Cyprus saves these £200 compared with other airports,”Rolandis said.
Commenting on the prospects for next summer and the news that the three major UK operators on which Cyprus depends for its British market were cutting capacity, Rolandis said that, although he was aware that bookings were down, it was too early put a definitive figure on it.
” As far as I know, bookings are down. But this is not absolutely indicative of the results for next year because in Britain now people are becoming late bookers as time goes by,”he said.
” The real bookings will be from January to February, so it’s a little premature to draw any conclusions at this stage on what tourism next year may be.”
Rolandis said his personal feeling was that with the US-led war in Afghanistan winding down, tourism would not suffer as much as initially feared.
” Of course, we are left with a recession and a feeling of restraint on the part of travellers,”he said. ” I do not want to make any forecasts. It’s difficult. But I do not share the extent of the pessimism of some of the people. I believe that with the measures we have adopted, Cyprus will be in the best possible position.”
