TRAVEL AGENTS are facing large losses due to unfilled Cyprus Airways (CY) seats on outward flights during the traditionally peak period of 1-16 August with bookings down 30 per cent.
A large proportion of the 3,600 seats block-booked by travel agents on CY flights remain unsold, which compelled the Association of Cyprus Travel Agents (ACTA) to ask CY on Saturday to agree to take back 50 per cent of them.
ACTA Executive Director Thasos Katsourides said that CY had agreed to take back just 10 per cent of the pre-booked seats, and that his association had tried unsuccessfully to push CY for at least a further 15 per cent, “to share the loss evenly between the travel agents and Cyprus Airways”. He said that so far this year, bookings by Cypriots for flights and holidays abroad are 30 per cent down on last year.
CY spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said: “If Cyprus Airways were to take back the extra unsold seats, this would be an extra risk and financial burden for us.” Kyriacou explained that travel agents generally have their agreed allocation of CY seats for the summer season by the beginning of March, and their agreement with CY specifically rules out “returns” during the peak travel period of July-August, during which pre-booked seats are taken by the agents on a committed rather than provisional basis.
Outside of this period, agents can return unsold seats 14 days before the date of travel, which Kyriacou said is an improvement on last year’s agreement, which specified 21 days notice.
Kyriacou said that, despite not being obliged to, CY had nevertheless agreed to take back 10 per cent of the unsold seats, “which under the circumstances was a balanced response, taking account of the interests of both the travel agents and the airline.”
ACTA has sent letters to a number of ministries – Finance, Commerce & Tourism, Communications and Labour & Social Insurance – asking the government to agree to support CY financially in order to help them get through the crisis and avoid a potential social cost. ACTA has specifically asked to meet Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis to discuss the matter.
Stavrakis said on Saturday that this was a “delicate matter”, because “an increase in losses made by CY, which ultimately is owned by the state, would create an additional tax burden for the Cypriot citizen, so we would have to look at this very carefully”.
One factor that might rule against extra financial support for CY by the government would be EU competition rules, which forbid state subsidies which directly impact prices. However, provided there is political will to do so, various indirect ways of giving extra support to CY are available to the government.
As of yesterday, Katsourides told the Cyprus Mail, ACTA had not received any kind of government response. The one exception so far, he said, has been a general comment by Commerce & Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides that his ministry supports the travel agents’ efforts.
