Bill tabled in UK parliament to allow direct flights to northern Cyprus

A bill has been tabled in the United Kingdom’s parliament with the aim of allowing direct flights between the country and northern Cyprus.

The bill, an “early day motion”, was tabled by Sammy Wilson of the DUP, a Northern Irish conservative and pro-British unionist political party, and has been signed by Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, the country’s shadow foreign secretary – the most powerful voice in the opposition on the matter of foreign affairs.

It states that “this house calls on the government to allow direct flights from the United Kingdom to Ercan international airport in Northern Cyprus”.

It adds that it “notes the ongoing hardship caused by current travel restrictions to over 300,000 Turkish Cypriots in the UK and thousands of British nationals in Northern Cyprus”, and that “Ercan airport meets international aviation security standards”.

Facilitating direct flights between the UK and the north, the bill states, would “promote fairness, ease family travel, and strengthen the UK’s strategic presence in the region”.

Alongside Wilson and Rosindell, the bill has been signed by fellow DUP MP Jim Shannon.

Early day motions are bills submitted for debates in the House of Commons, the UK’s lower house, for which no date has been set. Given that there is no specific time allocated to such bills, very few are debated.

The north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport at present only serves flights to Turkey, with a previous custom of flights between the UK and the north briefly touching down in Turkey before continuing on to their final destination having been abolished by the UK government in 2017.

The UK government at the time cited security fears in light of the failed coup d’état which was staged in Turkey the previous year.

The bill’s tabling comes after the north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli had called for the airport to be treated as a Turkish airport, suggesting that the move may allow for cheaper air fares between the north and Turkey, and for the north to open up to international flights.

“The worst-case scenario is just like how we provide international mail and communication with the ‘Mersin 10 Turkey’ postcode,” he told Kibris TV, referring to how all post to the north is addressed to Mersin.

He added, “the worst-case scenario is that Ercan airport Antalya B or Ercan airport Cukurova B can be promoted as a secondary airport of Turkey, and we think that we can open Ercan airport to international flights under the control and the guarantee of [Turkey’s state airports authority (DHMI)]”.

Antalya and Cukurova are the two closest Turkish international airports to Cyprus.

However, opposition party CTP ‘MP’ Dogus Derya had pointed out when the idea was first floated in 2022 that the airport being treated as a domestic airport in Turkey could mean there would be no border control checks at Ercan (Tymbou) for passengers arriving from Turkey.

Alternatively, an arrangement to have Ercan (Tymbou) treated as a domestic airport in Turkey could see it treated similarly to how Dublin and Shannon airports in Ireland are by the United States.

There, passengers pass through US customs before boarding their flights from Ireland, thus effectively making their flight domestic. They then arrive as domestic passengers in the US.

Such an arrangement would therefore involve the stationing of Turkish border guards and customs officials in Cyprus, which would likely prove controversial.

It also remains unproven whether a technical reclassification of the airport’s status would persuade overseas airports and airlines to launch routes to and from it.