INCENTIVES and liberalisation of flights could increase the tourist flow to Cyprus by 400,000 people per year, the House Commerce Committee heard yesterday.
Lawmakers and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) asked for a reduction in airport fees in a bid to attract more airlines to Cyprus but airports operator Hermes said a general cut would be difficult and ineffectual.
Airport fees were not decided arbitrarily by Hermes; there was a specific timeframe and pricing policy, Hermes spokesman Adamos Aspris said.
“This is an integral part in the concession agreement, which has been approved by parliament,” he told reporters.
Commerce Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said airport fees must be reduced, adding that his Lebanese counterpart had told him that charges in Cyprus were double than in Lebanon.
CTO director Marios Hannides said a way must be found to reduce fees.
Hannides said the CTO had a study that said Larnaca and Paphos airports charged double the fees airports in Spain, Turkey and Athens did.
The communications ministry however, said that imposing a reduction would mean the state footing the bill.
And an across-the-board reduction could be considered a state subsidy and land Cyprus in trouble with the European Union.
Hermes representatives pointed out that targeted incentives and liberalisation would be much more effective.
Maria Kouroupi, Hermes marketing manager, said Cyprus could increase its tourist flow by 400,000 a year.
She said companies like Easyjet, Wizz Air, and Germanwings had already expressed an interest in bringing more passengers to Cyprus provided that certain agreements were struck regarding central and eastern Europe.
Some destinations remained closed, reserved through bilateral agreements for Cyprus Airways (CY), which does not even have scheduled flights for those countries.
Those destinations included UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
A bilateral agreement with Russia allows only two companies – one from each country -- to carry out scheduled flights to Moscow and Saint Petersburg while two airlines service eight other destinations.
A similar agreement is in place with Israel – one airline from each country – carried out scheduled flights, although the neighbouring country’s skies will be opened in 2017 when an agreement with the EU will come into effect.
Communications ministry official Iakovos Demetriou said 80 per cent of passenger traffic in Cyprus came from the EU – the rest from third countries.
Hermes officials stressed that any effort to increase tourist arrivals must be collective and focused in the same direction – the operator for instance cannot strive to strike a deal with a German airline while the CTO campaigned in Poland.
