Investors show interest in Eurocypria

SEVERAL serious investors are interested in Eurocypria (ECA) airlines, currently in voluntary liquidation, it emerged yesterday.

“There are numerous and serious investors with whom I am talking,” said liquidator Chris Iakovides.

He said the investors have asked for a business plan but they in turn must be able to convince that they have what it takes before any official announcements are made.

Iakovides declined to provide any more details and did not confirm or deny reports in the local media saying he was engaged in advanced contacts with three investors – the Church, Israeli carrier El Al and Andreas Vgenopoulos, Marfin Investment Group shareholder and chairman of Greece’s former state airline Olympic Air.

The names were published by Internet news outlet InBusinessNews, which said that the Archbishop, despite rejecting the possibility in the past, was having second thoughts for humanitarian reasons.

The website said the Church head does not want so many people being jobless; 320 ECA employees were affected when the company went under last month.

InBusinessNews suggested that if Vgenopoulos acquires ECA, he would probably use it to fly to destinations not covered by Olympic Air and Aegean airlines, which agreed earlier this year to merge with the former state carrier.

Concerning El Al, InBusinessNews said the company was interested in light of efforts to increase tourist traffic between Israel and Cyprus and vice versa.

Any potential investor would only be acquiring the company’s flight licence since it does not own any aircraft or other assets apart from a building in Larnaca.



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.