Spokesman confirms US inspected Tymbou airport

U.S. STATE Department spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed yesterday that experts from the Transportation Security Administration had visited and inspected Tymbou (Ercan) airport in the Turkish Cypriot north.

“We are looking at steps that can help ease the isolation of Turkish Cypriots. One of the steps we are looking at is the status of travel, and in connection with that we have had some people from Transportation Security Administration go out to Cyprus and look at the airport in the north,” Boucher told the press at a briefing yesterday.

Boucher was cagey, however, over what conclusion could be drawn by the visit saying only, “When we have any further measures we can announce we will announce them.”
He denied that the inspections were carried out in conjunction with non-American officials.

Britian’s Minister for Europe Denis MacShane on an official visit to Cyprus seemed yesterday to give backing to the US’s wishes to see direct flights between the north and other international destinations.

“I hope to see flights to all part of Cyprus on the basis of commercial viability, not political considerations,” he said at a working breakfast in Nicosia yesterday.

“Britain wants to see trade develop in Cyprus on the basis of EU norms, which means trade in all directions, in all sectors, 360 degrees round the compass,” he said, adding: “Forty-five million Britains fly every year on low-cost airlines and land freely in any airport of their choosing in the EU without let or hindrance by governments which under EU legislation are forbidden from preventing such trade,” he added.

The Cyprus government has formally protested to the US authorities about the visit to what they term an “illegal airport”.

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