THE CYPRUS Tourism Organisation (CTO) will be ready by early next year to issue a request for tenders from airlines that could help boost traffic to the island from new destinations, officials said yesterday.
In April this year, the CTO was given the green light from the EU to offer financial support to new airlines in order to entice them to fly to the island. Some €18 million has been set aside for the scheme for a period of three years, which is the maximum time allowed under EU rules.
“The studies have been almost completed and we hope to be able to ask for tenders in spring next year,” said CTO official Andros Papageorgiou.
The scheme is not only about luring low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, which has yet to be wooed to Cyprus. Any airline that can show it would be able to deliver the numbers based on the best offer in connecting Cyprus to new markets would be in the running to qualify for the scheme.
It is hoped that by next summer, the new routes will be up and running. The chosen airlines would probably have to commit to at least three flights a week to and from the island.
Malta last year carried out a similar scheme and lured Ryanair, boosting its arrivals by significant numbers in 2008.
Papageorgiou said there would be several issues to consider in evaluating the tenders. “We will have to consider all the parameters,” he said.
He said for instance if there was a tour operator that was already bringing large numbers of people from a particular market, and a low-cost carrier offered to bring visitors from the same market under the scheme, this scenario would have to be given extra careful scrutiny.
Low-cost carriers usually use regional airports because landing charges are lower than in major hubs. This allows them to keep fares lower, and is one of the reasons Ryanair has not yet jumped at the chance to fly to Cyprus. The airline has said Cyprus needs it more than it needs Cyprus.
In recent months, however, the rising price of fuel has prompted a number of low-cost airlines to cut capacity and ground parts of their fleet, and unless fuel trends reverse, the carriers may not be as tempted to include medium-haul Cyprus on their programmes.
“We are following the developments with the fuel,” said Papageorgiou, “but I don’t think it has much to do with starting up in a new market,” he said. “And at the moment, oil prices are going down, which gives some hope of recovery for the airlines by the end of the year.”
The new scheme came about after the CTO had a study carried out that determined the biggest obstacle facing Cyprus tourism was accessibility by air.
