GOVT PUSH TO CUT AIR FARES
MINISTER ASKS ANKARA TO SCRAP TAXES, UK TO HALT TOUCHDOWN RE-CHECKS
A NEW push is under way to end extra security screening during “touchdown” flights in Turkey for Ercan-UK travellers as part of an effort to lower flight costs, Cyprus Today can reveal.
The development is one of several government initiatives to slash rocketing air fares seen as hampering tourism — and comes as a government minister warned that travellers arriving via South Cyprus were “under threat” from its administration.
Tourism and Environment Minister Ünal Üstel, speaking to Cyprus Today from İstanbul where he was asking Turkish officials to scrap taxes, also in the hope of slashing air fares, said: “We are currently working on a programme for a visit to London where we hope to see British parliamentarians and peers to discuss what can be done to scrap the rescreening requirement of passengers flying to the UK from Ercan during touchdowns in Turkey.
“This . . . is causing a lot of time to be wasted and creating hardship for tourists and other travellers.”
Current prices for a oneweek Ercan-London ticket, flying on August 10, were this week running at an equivalent of between £412 and £540 — just £214 less than a Lufthansa return flight between Heathrow and Melbourne.
The cheapest flight from Larnaca to London was £304.
Asked to comment on peak season Ercan flights coming in at more than £500, Mr Üstel said: “That is expensive. We have been speaking with my Turkish counterpart in Ankara and with Turkish Airlines officials, and have requested that airport taxes be scrapped in order to help reduce prices.”
The initiative was slammed, though, by critics who said scrapping airports’ taxes was not possible because they were privately managed — a claim countered by Mr Üstel who said he “[did] not accept that ‘nothing can be done’”.
Tourism industry figures also said he had “gone to the wrong address” — Turkish Airlines (THY) — with the request, while Pegasus Airlines TRNC representative Zeki Ziya saying imposition of taxes was a “state-to-state issue” and removal of taxes would require government subsidy.
Mr Üstel retorted that his initiative needed to be seen in its wider context “in Ankara [not just] our most recent airline contacts in İstanbul”.
“THY will be adding extra flights to Ercan with Anadolu Jet [a subsidiary] and through increased flights we hope fares will begin to drop . . . We will stop the decline in tourism by 2020,” he vowed.
Mr Üstel added: “Tourists coming to the North via the South are subject to Greek Cypriot threats. They leave the island, never wanting to return, because of them.
“We have asked for flights to be increased from third countries . . . to increase tourism . . . and to end this obstacle.”
“Our government . . . has the objective of achieving two million tourists a year and
increasing bed capacity to 40,000,” he said, adding that the annual number of tourists visiting the TRNC was “over one million”.
Former head of the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (UK) Çetin Ramadan, who has already been involved in lobbying the British government over scrapping security rescreening, condemned the UK initiative as “pointless” ahead of Brexit and while Parliament was in its summer recess and asked: “Why are they re-inventing the wheel? Is this visit some sort of a show for someone?”
Mr Ramadan also blasted “opportunistic” airlines for high Ercan fares and said: “There needs to be more airlines, more flights and more competition to have an immediate impact on air fares. It’s not rocket science.”