BRITISH Airways (BA) yesterday announced its final batch of cut-price European offers, making some flights from Larnaca to Heathrow up to £70 cheaper than the equivalent flight with Cyprus Airways, depending on date of departure.
The British carrier announced that from yesterday prices to Spain, Turkey, Greece, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Cyprus would fall by up to 80 per cent. The move completes the launch of BA’s year-round low fares on 170 key routes to Europe that started in the spring.
The move is clearly aimed at reclaiming some of the market share lost to no-frills airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair. “We are the first airline to offer a full service at no frills prices on almost 6,500 flights a week, putting us firmly back on the agenda for air travel to Europe,” said BA’s marketing director Martin George.
A BA representative in the Nicosia sales office said, “The prices are geared to encourage people to make their reservations earlier. The sooner they book the better price they will get.”
Before yesterday’s reductions, the best price offered by BA for a September flight from Larnaca to London was £210 plus taxes. The equivalent flight is currently available at £150 plus taxes.
The BA sales representative said, “There are some conditions with these prices: once booked these flights are non-changeable and non-refundable with payment required seven days before departure. The minimum stay is for three days and maximum stay is for one year. However, this offer is available mid-week with no Saturday stopover.”
Cyprus Airways offers the equivalent flight at just under £300, including all taxes, although on other dates the price differential was as low as £10. Asked if the airline were about to launch any special offers in light of the move by BA, the sales representative said, “Cyprus Airways have not announced anything at the moment. These decisions are made by the committee.”
In response to the announcement of BA’s price cuts, Tassos Angeli, Spokesman for Cyprus Airways said, “You must be certain that you are comparing like with like, there are 14 different classes of service.” But he added: “We are considering the issue and will come out with our offers soon, and we might even surprise a few people.”
Angeli claimed that in addition to any special reductions that may be announced in the future, Cyprus Airways was already offering 50 per cent discount on family fares and for Senior Citizens, adding, “We are the market leaders in Cyprus, and we have always been cheaper than British Airways.”
Asked if the likely price reductions were being made in anticipation of the liberalisation of air routes into Cyprus scheduled for the January 2003, Angeli responded, “They have nothing to do with that.”
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.
