A TURKISH Cypriot airline is challenging the ban on direct flights to the north of Cyprus in a UK court next month.
Cyprus Turkish Airlines (CTA) and its UK tour operator, CTA Holidays Limited, have launched a legal challenge to the UK government’s refusal to operate direct flights between the two countries. The case will be heard in the Administrative Court, a division of the High Court, in the week beginning May 18, 2009.
Direct flights to the north have been banned since the 1974 Turkish invasion as the government does not have effective control over the area, more specifically, the commercial airport at Tymbou (Ercan).
The position of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is that Ercan airport is not included in the list of international airports and that according to the Regional Air Navigation Plan (European region), the Nicosia Air Traffic Control Centre is responsible for the entire Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR). The ICAO is a specialised agency of the UN, created with the signing of the Chicago Convention in 1944.
Following the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan plan in 2004, there were calls from the UN Secretary-general and members of the EU Commission and Council to end the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots through direct “trade and aid”.
While the government finally approved aid to the tune of €259 for the Turkish Cypriot community, it did not cede any rights on recognising Ercan as an international airport.
The ICAO has backed this position, noting direct flights would be a violation of the Chicago Convention, and neither Azerbaijan nor the UK has begun direct flights to the north, despite expressing a desire to do so post-2004.
In 2006, CTA applied for a permit to commence direct flights from the UK, which was rejected due to “legal difficulties”, according to then British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
Britain has said it supports “in principle” commencement of direct flights to the north but that “legally there are great difficulties”.
According to Carteret Communications, acting on behalf of CTA, “the ban, which has lasted 35 years, has caused considerable inconvenience to those travelling between the two countries on family, business, or holiday visits”.
CTA currently operates flights from a number of UK airports, flying around 100,000 visitors from the UK, but must land in Turkey en route both to and from the north. CTA argues this increases flight times and costs, places unfair restrictions on Turkish Cypriots, is environmentally unsound and “has absolutely no operational justification”.
They plan to argue in court that the UK government has misunderstood the Chicago Convention and its impact on the legality of direct flights. It further argues that the ban on direct flights is “unlawful and unjust”.
Meanwhile, the Cyprus government is still waiting for Turkey to implement the Ankara Protocol, as obliged by the EU, which will open Turkish ports and air space to Cypriot vessels and airplanes. As things now stand, flights in and out of the government-controlled areas have to circumvent Turkish air space, also adding to the time, cost and carbon footprint of passengers.
The Nicosia FIR, which safely managed 260,000 flights carrying some 20 million passengers last year, has no contact at all with Turkish air traffic controllers.
Last month, Communications Minister Nicos Nicolaides denounced the refusal of Turkey to cooperate with Cyprus’ air traffic control services and to allow the use of its airspace by Cypriot airlines.
Addressing the Annual European Air Safety Conference in Cyprus, Nikolaides said FIR controllers faced “extra challenges” when Turkey refuses to cooperate with them or allow the use of its airspace by Cypriot airlines.
