Reducing aviation emissions mustn’t undermine Cyprus’ connectivity, minister warns

Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation industry should not make ticket prices prohibitive as there are no other links to mainland Europe, Transport Minister Vasiliki Anastasiadou has said.

In an intervention at the EU Transport and Telecoms Council, in Luxembourg, Anastasiadou said air pollution was one of the key issues for the transport ministers council yesterday and she said she had warned her counterparts that “airline connectivity and prices affect Cyprus` competitiveness as a tourist destination but also the quality of life for all residents of our country “.

She stressed that air transport was the only means for Cyprus residents to connect with Europe and the rest of the world. “Without cheap and affordable air connections, the inhabitants of Cyprus will be isolated,” she said.

Any effort to reduce emissions should be based on ensuring the international competitiveness of the EU aviation sector and taking into account “the particularities of all member states”, she 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.