CAD cancels charter flights from Israel

THE ISRAELI embassy said yesterday it was looking into surprise reports that the government had axed Israeli charter firm Arkia Airlines flights to Larnaca.

The news came to light following the publication of an article in an Israeli newspaper that the Civil Aviation Department had cancelled all of Arkia’s flights to Cyprus.

Israeli Minister of Tourism Meir Sheetrit told the newspaper he was surprised and that he opposed the move. “If Cyprus cancels Arkia’s flights to Cyprus, we can do the same, and cancel Cyprus Airways’ flights to Israel,” he said.

Arkia told the paper that the success of the flights, along with heavy demand, had led Cyprus Airways to pressure Civil Aviation to cancel the Israeli flights. Arkia had suspended the flights to Larnaca, but has not yet filed an official complaint, it said.

A spokesperson at the embassy told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that they were also surprised at the news and would be looking into the reasons why the licence was cancelled.

The spokesperson said the twice-weekly flights had only begun a month ago and mainly catered to Israeli businessmen who didn’t want to stay overnight. ‘That was the main purpose,” the spokesperson said. “We also want to know what happened”.

Civil Aviation could not be reached for comment yesterday but official government sources told the Cyprus Mail that the flights had been cancelled because Arkia had violated the terms of its charter licence. The sources said they did not know the specifics.

“There was a report that this airline was breaking the rules of charter flights,” the sources said. “Before any measure could be taken, they informed the Civil Aviation that they would not continue the flights but on the next day they put in a new application to resume the charter flights and that’s where the situation is.”

The sources said the decision was not political and had nothing to do with reports recently that Israeli businessman and tourists were flying into Larnaca and visiting casinos in the north.
The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) said yesterday it was not aware of the cancellation of the Arkia flights. It was a matter for civil aviation, a spokesman said adding however that the Israeli market was very important for Cyprus tourism.

The number of Israelis who visited Cyprus last year rose to 37,000 from 27,000 in 2003, an increase of 36 per cent.

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.