Top Kinisis served 4,000 CY passengers over the weekend

Top Kinisis Travel, the agency appointed by the government to re-ticket Cyprus Airways passengers, served 4,000 people on Saturday and Sunday in the wake of the national carrier’s demise.
The company’s call centre took 18,000 calls from Cyprus and abroad.
“The first days, which were the most critical went very well and all passengers travelled, the vast majority in line with their original departure times,” the agency’s boss Akis Kelepeshis told the Cyprus News Agency on Monday.
According to Kelepeshis, three chartered flights were laid on for Moscow, Amsterdam and London.
For flights to and from Greece, Kelepeshis said there had been some small delays.
He said the contract the company has signed with the government was valid until February 9, during which time a further 7,000 passengers will be accommodated.
Noting that there were reservations with Cyprus Airways up until 30 October, Kelepeshis said this week the government would announce what it intended to do with the other passengers but did not foresee a problem. Aegean Airlines was expected to announce increased flights to Cyprus, he said.
Meanwhile, a statement from the Office of the Accountant General on Monday responded to reports related to the contract signed with Top Kinisis to take over the Cyprus Airway ticketing.
The statement said the agency was used on the basis of information provided to the government by Cyprus Airways and civil aviation as the only tour operator in Cyprus with direct access to CY’s real-time reservations system and was also the airline’s representative office in Greece.
“Therefore, it became clear that it was the only one who could readily assume the complicated business of settling alternative flights with other airlines or any additional charter flights to transport passengers Cyprus Airways at least for the first 30 days,” the statement said.
“The arrangements for Cyprus Airways passengers beyond the first 30 days from the interruption of the flight programme, will be the subject of a separate meeting or new process at a later stage.”
Top Kinisis was awarded the contract under emergency measures contained in the Law on Public Procurement, it added.

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.