The sad tale of Eurocypria’s demise took another turn yesterday when the Greek government and the town of Paphos stated that they will fight to relaunch the airline under a new venture. The move is in retaliation to Cyprus Airways sudden decision to terminate all flights from Paphos to Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Frankfurt and Athens from next week. The new venture would also rehire Eurocypria’s flight crews that Cyprus Airways announced it would terminate all even following offers in November.
Paphos mayor Savvas Vergas called for a general boycott of all Cyprus Airways flights and is meeting with local partners this weekend to discuss starting a Paphos-based airline with an initial fleet of two aircraft and a starting capital of €10 million.
Cyprus Airways has defended the closure of the loss-making routes to the coastal town as part of its recovery measures. The airline said in a statement that “if Cyprus Airways allowed the situation to develop without taking rescue measures, they would have no hope of survival, with all the negative consequences such a development would have on our country’s tourism and economy”.