BELEAGUERED airline ajet has accused the government of a blatant disregard for the law in preventing one of its planes from leaving Cyprus.
Yesterday, the Attorney-general’s office filed an injunction with a Larnaca court to seize the airline’s remaining plane.
The move came in the wake of a decision last week from a different court, which had overturned an injunction from Civil Aviation to ground ajet’s planes.
In that ruling, the judge had noted that the injunction lacked a complete disclosure. He said the government “did not come to court with clean hands”, meaning it had omitted information relevant to the case.
Ajet owes the state more than £2 million in accrued tax, which the government demands the carrier pay immediately.
The issue arose soon after ajet announced it was ceasing operations within the next three months.
The low-cost carrier – the former Helios – says it’s on the brink of financial ruin due to the fallout from last August’s crash at Grammatiko, Greece, when 121 people lost their lives.
But ajet lawyer Christos Neocleous says the government is in contempt of court, because in the meantime it had stopped another flight from taking place.
The plane’s owners are Celestial Aviation Trading Ltd, an Irish concern.
“It’s a legalistic ploy,” Neocleous said of the government’s latest action.
“They realised that they can’t touch us, so now they’re going after the owners for the money.
Technically, they are within the bounds of the law, but morally it’s reprehensible.”
Ajet says it wants to return the plane to the owners. Even though the airline has been stripped of its flight certificate, it says the plane may still leave on a private [as opposed to commercial] flight.
On Saturday, Transport Minister Harris Thrassou held a marathon meeting with Attorney-general Petros Klerides, after which it was decided to file another injunction to impound the plane.
But Neocleous had told the Mail that in the meantime – before Thrassou’s new move – that airport authorities, presumably acting on the minister’s orders, had again blocked the ajet plane on the runway as it prepared to depart for London. This happened on Friday evening.
“This is a banana republic,” Neocleous said.
“They are disregarding a court decision, while all the time they claim to be upholding the law.”
He added there was “no point” in his going to court to challenge the new injunction.
“The company [ajet] won’t be in court. We shall have no more to do with this monkey business,” he said.
Neocleous said the government’s new injunction would include a demand by Hermes – the managers of the airport – that ajet pay its owed airport fees, to the tune of £125,000 euros, otherwise the aircraft should be grounded.
Hermes’ lawyers had filed a separate motion with a Larnaca court on Friday on these grounds – but their request was also thrown out.
Hermes is represented by the Tassos Papadopoulos law firm.
Meanwhile, ajet has announced that due to the grounding of its fleet, it will no longer be possible for scheduled flights to take place with alternative operators.
Passengers who have booked flights for Warsaw, Luton, Manchester and Birmingham are advised to contact their travel agent for a refund. To cancel bookings made with a credit card over the internet, passengers should contact the bank that issued their credit card.
However, flights to and from Warsaw will continue, but have been transferred to operators Oversun Aviation with Cyprus Airways (CY) planes. Oversun carries out flights with CY on Mondays and Thursdays. Affected passengers should contact 24-629595.
Persons who have booked a package tour with ajet should get in touch with their travel agent.
“We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to passengers, which is the result of the actions of the Transport Ministry and Civil Aviation,” read a statement released by ajet.
