Cobalt’s licences officially revoked, not just suspended

Cobalt’s commercial and operating licences have been revoked, a government official clarified on Thursday.

Alecos Michaelides, permanent secretary at the transport ministry told the Cyprus Mail that the Air Transport Licencing Authority had cancelled the budget airline’s licences.

An official letter of notification would be delivered to the company on Friday, he added.

Michaelides was being asked to clarify conflicting reports in the media that authorities had merely suspended the air carrier’s license.

Earlier in the day, Cobalt’s board chairman Grigoris Diakos suggested that civil aviation might suspend their licence rather than revoke it entirely.

He said suspending the licence could help the company continue its search for new investors, who might otherwise be discouraged if the airline lacked an operating licence.

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.