Hellas Jet takes off at last

CYPRUS Airways (CY) subsidiary Hellas Jet yesterday launched its first inaugural flight, from Athens to Brussels.

The flight took off for the Belgian capital at 7.15am, CY spokesman Tassos Angelis told the Cyprus Mail.

Angelis said the flight was not full, but that numbers were encouraging. He said that, had it not been for the uncertainty of the launch date, passenger numbers would probably have been higher.

Hellas Jet received an air operator’s licence from Greece earlier in the month and had hoped to begin operating on Monday, but a delay in obtaining the commercial licence forced the airline to postpone the launch for 24 hours. The commercial licence was only received on Monday evening.

“We are sure that the airline will receive a powerful boost during the Olympics next year,’ Angelis said.

Hellas Jet operates two flights a day to Paris and Brussels and one a day to London Heathrow and Zurich, using three leased Airbus A320s. Angelis said there was a strong possibility the airline would add another two aircraft to the fleet.

Hellas Jet is 49 per cent owned by CY and 51 per cent by two Greek banks, Alpha and Omega. The airline has some 200 staff.

Angelis said Cypriot passengers would be able travel on Hellas Jet via Athens to the designated European destinations, staying over in the Greek capital if they wished. He said packages and joint fares were being prepared and would soon be published locally.

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.