CY in deal to offload Hellas Jet

CYPRUS Airways has signed an agreement with Air Miles of Greece for the commercial exploitation of Hellas Jet, its loss-making Greek subsidiary.
The memorandum of understanding includes a call option on Air Miles to acquire 51 per cent of Hellas Jet shares from Cyprus Airways, and for the Cypriot carrier to sell Air Miles its remaining 49 per cent, Cyprus Airways said in a statement.

Cyprus Airways did not disclose the value of the deal with Air Miles, which is the commercial name of Trans World Aviation S.A., based in Greece.
The Cypriot carrier, troubled by a mountain of debts from fleet-renewal costs and start-up operations in Greece, suspended Hellas Jet scheduled flights in May.

The Greek unit was created in 2003 to tap an anticipated surge in passenger traffic before the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

It was clocking up losses of 1.5 million euros a month, putting an additional strain on Cyprus Airways’ limited financial resources.

The Cypriot national carrier, majority owned by the government, is in the throes of deep restructuring which saw one-third of its senior management axed last year. In May, the European Commission approved a government loan guarantee for the cash-strapped carrier.

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.