Air traffic delays ‘no worse than normal’

By Andrew Adamides

DISRUPTION to flights to and from Cyprus because of Euro Control in Brussels is no worse than normal, the Civil Aviation department said yesterday.

Recent reports in the local press had claimed that Euro Control, which must give clearance for any flight passing over Europe to take off, had been causing delays in flights to and from the island.

But Cyprus Airways spokesman Tassos Angelis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the island’s problems had been no worse than those of any other country, and that ATC (Air Traffic Control) delays were just a part of everyday airline life.

He added that when it comes to ATC delays, Cyprus Airways is also affected because it cannot fly over Turkey, and must therefore use other air corridors.

The whole thing is “a matter of co-ordination”, he said.

Iacovos Papadopoulos, head of the Civil Aviation department, also said that the delays were no worse than those experienced by any other country, and that they were also no worse than those experienced at the same time last year. Delays always increase in the summer because there are more flights to and from the island.

Papadopoulos added, however, that there had recently been some “rearrangements” with a view to minimising future delays. So far this summer, the worst delays attributed to air traffic control had been around three-quarters of an hour, he said.

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.