- Cyprus : President parks on double yellow line
- air travel : Fresh calls for Eurocypria merger as CY flounders
- transport : Our View: State cannot give in to every trivial demand from...
- Cyprus : UN hopes leaders can ‘break the back’ of property issue
- Cyprus : Blaze threatens homes in Troodos foothills
- Cyprus : First rains fall in Larnaca
- Crime : Five day remand after farm arrest
- bats : Fruit bats on the brink of extinction
- Cyprus : Russian billionaire Abramov gets Cypriot citizenship
- agriculture : Five million kilos of excess grapes
Chaos as airline bailout collapses
Topic tags
CyprusCHAOS reigned again yesterday at the north’s Ercan Airport as a bailout deal for the ‘TRNC’ Cyprus Turkish Airlines (CTA) collapsed amid pressure from unions.
A deal had seemed all but sealed yesterday, with private Turkish airline Atlas Jet agreeing to buy a 51 per cent share in the stricken airline. CTA has been losing 3.5 million dollars monthly and has amassed around 120 million US dollars worth of debt in total.
However, a spokesman for Atlas Jet said yesterday the company was pulling out of the deal because of the “rabid opposition” shown by the unions.
“It is perfectly clear that if the workers and the management cannot work together, there is no way that the struggle needed to save this company can be staged,” the spokesman said. Since Monday night all four CTA planes have been grounded after the Turkish aviation authorities revoked the airline’s licences. All workers at CTA’s offices in Cyprus and abroad have also been on strike
Meanwhile, passengers continue to appear at Ercan hoping CTA’s supposed new partner Atlas would take them to their destination. Those who have booked tickets with CTA say they are receiving “absolutely nothing” in terms of information of what to expect. British holiday maker Kurt Leeming told the Cyprus Mail he had a holiday booked with the stricken airline in August, but was unsure of whether it would fly.
“I've rang KTHY offices in London on Wednesday and they could not give any answers other than they expected to be taken over by Atlas in the next few days and that all flights would from then be secured. Also they were not offering or taking any cancellation of bookings”.
Travel agents in north Cyprus were saying the same.
“There is no one at CTA except a security guard,” one agent told the Mail yesterday.
“We can’t take bookings, we can’t take cancellations, we can’t give refunds, we can’t do anything for CTA customers”.
The agent said most CTA passengers had postponed their return flights in the hope that the problem would be sorted out in a few days. Others had simply paid for flights with other private airlines Atlas Jet and Pegasus, or flown with Turkish Airlines, which also operates out of Ercan.
Prior to Atlas Jet’s pulling out of the deal, a 2000-strong group of trades unionists supporting workers at CTA and opposed to the Atlas deal, marched through north Nicosia, stopping at the Turkish Cypriot ‘parliament’, ‘finance ministry’ and headquarters of the ruling National Unity Party (UBP) in Nicosia.
Small scuffles broke out with the police when some protesters began pelting the ‘finance ministry’ with plastic water bottles. Later, eggs were thrown at the UBP headquarters.
The protesters also handed a letter addressed to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Ergdogan at the Turkish embassy, complaining that the deal between CTA and Atlas had been “engineered by the Turkish government and imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people”.
“It is now plainly clear that all political and economic policies in north Cyprus are directed by your government,” the letter said, adding that the view of the Turkish transport minister Binali Yildirim’s view that Turkish Cypriot were “incapable of running an airline” was “unacceptable”.
Get the Mail on your mobile. It's free & easy.
Alex comments:
Tim
More or less agree with your comments, but I have to travel to Antalya a lot. I can't get there as KTHY was the only airline flying this route. I suspect this is the case with a number of other local destinations.
I also know for a fact that a number of organisations are involved in bringing much needed tourists over from Turkey for a couple of days in the North, benefiting hotels, restaurants, taxis, shops.
Tim from UK comments:
Obituary to Turkish Cyprus Airline
KTHY were always the airline of last resort. Anyone who has ever flown with them would know about their appalling onboard service with young, over made-up trolly-dollies sneering at their customers as they visibly resented serving them - handing out tiny paper cups from catering-sized boxes of wine or orange-flavour cordial. Thee spartan aircraft failed to meet even charter expectations by providing no in-flight entertainment - a shock in this era as many of their routes via Turkey were well over five hours duration. Neither did the airline ever managed to join the modern era in enabling on-line bookings through the likes of Expedia, Opodo, or any other online booking agent. Their own quirky website was full of bugs and frequently out of action. That their own staff should strike in protest at the prospect of the airline being saved could not have been a kinder death to a truly terrible airline.
jj from KKTC comments:
Good riddance to CTA- hope the new airline replacing it will do better- which shouldnt be to hard!
to Xak- your side cant even tolerate two days holiday for Bayram in one school, so please dont lecture anyone about illegality. The North was created to end racism and violence against Turkish Cypriots, acknowledge that, and we can all move forward.
Xak from UK comments:
As usual Trixi fails to comprehend!!
You might as well stand om your head and whistle Yankee doodle!!
Alex comments:
Melios
As I have posted before this is about an airline not about the past.
Just for once forget the unsolvable Cyprob. It will never be sorted out as it is not just the unions that have this head in the sand / we will never agree with anything attitude. It is common all over the Mediteraneum area.
Now back to the airline story ............
Chris Green TRNC from Doğanköy, Girne. comments:
To Disallusioned, I very much see your point my friend. Given the fact we are in the middle of the World Cup and in that context this is like giving the political football to the Greeks and allowing every kick to be a Free Kick at goal and unopposed too! The behaviour of th trade unions here is disgraceful and in reality is an act of treason for the damage this will cause to the TRNC nation is immense. All the employees deserve their fate. The Atlas opportunity is not just lost but thrown away and largely I suspect because the Turk Cyps do not want a Turkish company controlling the now defunct airline. This is an insult to the 1317 sons of Turkey that gave their lives that Turkish Cypriots might survive. Heaven only knows how many more succommed to their wounds. Disgraceful!
Disillusioned comments:
My friend Chris. You call this a "country". It is an entity we are all rapidly becoming ashamed of.
Chris Green TRNC from Doğanköy, Girne. comments:
This turn of events ıs unfortunately wholly typical of the union situation here. 36 trade unions in a country of 250,000 people and 26 are involved at the airport! This suicidal behaviour will put all 670 CTA staff in the jobless queue where they rightly belong. This also serves to fuel the prejudices of idiots like ZAK who should be reminded that the status quo will remain and the devastatingly superior Turkish peacekeeping forces will ensure it stays that way for any notion or hostile movement on the dark side will lead to its eradication within two days! Two days ZAK ok!
By the way kevin from paralimni you are absolutely right except our lot then shoot themselves in the head too!
TYPOS CORRECTED!
Chris Green TRNC from Doğanköy, Girne. comments:
Thıs turn of events ıs unfortunately wholly typical of the union situation here. 36 trade unions in a country of 250,000 people and 26 are involved at the airport! This suicidal behaviour will put all 670 CTA staff in the jobless queue where they rightly belong. This also serves to fuel the prejudices of idiots like ZAK who should be reinded that the status quo will remain and the devastatingly superior Turkish peacekeeping forces will ensure it stays that way for any notion or hostilemovement onthe dark side will lead to its eradication within tow days! Two days ZAK ok!
By the way kevin from paralimni you are absolutely right except our lot then shoot themselves in the head too!
trixi from girne comments:
I have not used cyprus turkish airlines for years it crap and they treat you like shit so who cares what happens to them, but here is a little something for XAK from uk was the regime in greece illegal?NO
and they have colappsed, dont wish to hard it may come back and bite you! and a word to MELLIOS A
we all know ilegal blah blah its boring get a life.if it is so illegal WHY HAS NOT ANYONE DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT??????? PLEASE TELL ME.
YOU HAVE TO POKE YOUR BIG NOSES INTO EVERYTHING!
IF YOUR NOT GOING TO BIG THE MONEY TO SAVE THE AIRLINES KEEP YOUR TRAPS SHUT WHEN CYPRUS AIRWAYS WAS ALMOST BUST NO ONE IN THE NORTH GAVE 2 SHITS .
GET ON WITH YOUR LIFES!
kevin from paralimni comments:
Seems like the unions over the north are just as thick as the ones in the south. The usual case of shooting oneself in the foot.
Xak from UK comments:
All that remains now is for the Illegal Turkish regime to colappse,
Denktash, and Greek Cypriot traitors imprisoned,Turkish Troops and settlers to go home, and Cyprus to be reunited.
For too long the minority racist "Patriots" on both sided of the dividing line have been allowed to poison their own peoples minds and create the division on this beautiful Island.
It is time to call an end to allowing the racist few to lead the majority of the people, who simply want to live in peace.
Enough is enough!
ahmed comments:
As a turkish cypriot I think this is amazing news, these parasites working at the turkish cypriot airlines who are corrupt,lazy and overpaid as well as their cronie unions have gotten what they deserved. Lets see them find a new job now.
MELIOS A. IOANNIDES comments:
In this report not a single word about the whole illegal operations going on in northern occupied Cyprus.
Everything is normal and business as usual,giving the impression that the whole of Cyprus has come to terms with the occupation and things are run from Ankara for all Cypriots,although the issue at hand concerns Northern Cyprus.
That's a diplomatic way of injecting into our system the hopeless situation in order to digest the forthcoming unpleasant developments.
Long suffering passenger from Girne comments:
I was waiting for the day when this lousy airline stops operating. Arrogant ground staff, unreliable and expensive flights. Turkish Cypriot apparatschiks turning the 'national carrier' into a private flight service. Good riddance!