A WAR of words has broken out between Cyprus Airways (CY) and the three biggest tour operators over a deal signed by the airline with Royal Holidays to carry out 130 charter flights to the Greek islands and other destinations this summer.
Louis Tours, Top Kinisis Travel and Let’s Go Tours by Amathus said they had approached CY at the beginning of last autumn “seeking cooperation to carry out charter flights to the Greek islands and other destinations in the summer of 2011 … but so far there was no response.”
The three tour operators said they were informed through the media of CY’s agreement with a single tour operator for the second year running and categorically denied claims the airline had had any consultations with them.
CY and Royal Holidays signed the deal for flights to Greek destinations including Santorini, Mitilini, Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, Kos, Skiathos, Samos, Alexandroupolis, Kavala, Rhodes and Karpathos and international destinations like Prague, Venice, Rome and Sharm el-Sheikh.
Last summer 110 flights took place on the basis of a similar agreement between the two companies.
The operators said CY only extended a proposal to them after granting the whole flight package to a single tour organizer, a written statement said. “The proposal concerned four destinations only and set the unacceptable condition of no cooperation with any other airline.”
The operators said “the practice followed by CY in the last two years was not the usual and unfortunately it was not transparent either.”
They warned that the airline was distancing its associates with this move “and jeopardized sales in the Cypriot market worth €55 million.”
The operators said they will consult with other carriers, claiming they were faced with a fait accompli and excluded from any cooperation with CY.
In its written statement, CY denied they had disregarded anyone, adding that they gave the chance to their associates to hold consultations aiming in striking deals for chartered flights – either for his summer or any other period.
The ailing airline said it considered the deal advantageous as it secured additional work for the summer in a particularly competitive field.
CY said another company had already started advertising and selling seats from Larnaca to similar destinations for this summer before the airline signed the deal with Royal Holidays.
“Apparently others had made other choices long before this deal was concluded, thus claims that CY did not observe the code of ethics are unfounded,” the airline said.
It is understood that CY is talking about Greece’s Aegean, which is linked to one of the three tour operators.
The Cypriot national carrier said it is still in a position to offer charter flights to the three tour organizers, as well as others.
“Unfortunately the tour operators who are protesting have made other choices, which are respected within the framework of healthy competition,” CY said.
