Helios denies Irish flights ‘fiasco’

BELEAGUERED private airline Helios Airways has denied claims from Irish holidaymakers that the quality and the service to Dublin has declined.

In a recent letter to the Cyprus Mail, Brian Whelan of Dublin described Helios’ links to Cyprus as a “fiasco” claiming the airline had considerably dropped in service.

“We normally travel with Helios and had noticed a significant drop in the quality of service in the past 18 months – particularly in delayed flights. There has been an enormous level of bad publicity here over the recent incident with the difficulties experienced by Irish soccer fans travelling back to Ireland.”

Whelan added that despite being a frequent visitor to the island and despite purchasing a property recently in Paphos, he is considering altering his travel destinations in the future.
“We are due to travel shortly to Paphos for a six-week visit and had a number of inconvenient changes to our Helios arrangements imposed on us. The final insult is that we have been advised that the airline has cancelled all its direct flights to/from Ireland for November, regardless of bookings confirmed.”

But Helios Airways spokesman Nicos Anastassiades yesterday denied his airline had been cutting back operations to Ireland, while admitting the airline would cancel flights to Dublin for a short period of time.

“We have not suspended our flights to and from Ireland. However, for trade reasons, we have decided temporarily to suspend flights to and from Dublin for a period of one and a half months.

“Our airline is operating normally to and from Dublin and to my knowledge there have not been any cancellations or major delays. Only last week, I flew with the airline to Dublin so I know that things are operating properly.”

Helios suffered a major blow when one of its planes crashed in Greece on august 14, killing all 121 passengers and crew on board.

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.