Helios insists flights running normally

HELIOS claimed their flights were running as normal yesterday, even though the company’s spokesman at Larnaca Airport, Nicos Anastasiades, could not provide a flight schedule.

However, help lines set up to aid those seeking information about Helios’ flight schedule yesterday seemed unable to cope with demands. Efforts by the Cyprus Mail to reach the Helios information line were to no avail, while the information desk at Larnaca airport was unable to provide any information about Helios’ flight schedule, while Larnaca airport’s customer services did not answer calls.

Moreover, Anastasiades was unable to provide the Cyprus Mail with yesterday’s flight schedule. However, he did insist the schedule would be continuing as normally as possible under the circumstances.

“All the rest of our fleet is flying as normal. No airplanes have been grounded, and at no point in time have we had problems with any of our other aircraft.”

Asked if Helios had chartered any other aircraft yesterday, including two jets from Austrian Airways and Egypt Air, Anastasiades replied: “We are chartering third party aircraft from a number of different airlines, based on availability and on European safety standards. This is because at the moment we have more passengers than we are able to cope with, the demand is simply too high. This is one of the busiest times in the Mediterranean area, but the situation should improve over the next few days. A good number of our flights are leaving on time.”

Anastasiades also emphasised Helios’ sympathies with the relatives of those travelling on Sunday’s ill-fated flight.

“Here at Helios we are unable to express our sorrow over this tragedy. We can only imagine how the relatives of those who died must be feeling right now.”

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.