Voters stranded by bad weather in Greece

SOME 250 voters did not make it to the polls yesterday after their Cyprus Airways (CY) flight was unable to leave Athens due to bad weather.

A number of other CY flights were delayed due to the snow, but arrived on time for voters to reach polling stations before they closed at 5pm.

The Communication and Public Relations Manager of Hermes Airports, Adamos Aspris, said two of the delayed flights had landed mid afternoon and that Hermes had done everything possible to speed up their departure from the airport so their passengers could vote on time.

A total of 12 planes were due to arrive yesterday, five from Athens, two from Salonica, three from London, one from Manchester and one from Birmingham, carrying about a thousand voters in total.

By 4.30pm yesterday, the delayed flight was still in Athens. CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said a number of the 244 passengers had decided not to board. ‘It’s too late for them,” he said.

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.