Hello Ryan, goodbye Cyprus Airlines
Does the future of Cyprus Travel industry lie in its bricks and not its services; not in its airlines but in its airports?
Success to the Hermes Airports’ Incentive Scheme has finally given its prized compensation. The festive mood at the Larnaka Airport on November 3rd played well with Cyprus hosting to a new guest for Cyprus Tourism called Ryanair. The significance of the moment may be less about the window of opportunity by having Ryanair landing, it may actually mark the end of a presumptuous Chapter in air travel for Cyprus tourism.
As much as we would like to join the enthusiasm and wild speculations of the new opportunities, reading through the lines of the expressions of satisfaction by Ms Melissa Corrigan, Ryanair Sales and advertising manager in Cyprus, "We are delighted to inaugurate our first route from Larnaka, and bring
really low fares to Cyprus for the first time. Ryanair will continue to
grow as other airlines pull routes and reduce capacity whilst incurring
significant losses", we can't reconcile this satisfaction when coupled with the way trade and customer agreements are being compromised by governmental decision-making behind the Cyprus Airline merger scheme.
As business is business, the plight of 1.230 employees from both airlines which will have to be relocated, the international trade agreements with travel counterparts, the implication of the Hotel, Travel agent Associations, the established air and route connections, the winter season and current customers stranded from strikes at EuroCypria. How can we be comforted by Ryanair's arrival to Cyprus, with its renowned reputation for low cost transportation system and an absolute negation to customer service. This same lack of regard seems to be inherent to the government handling of the scandal and shortsightedness of past administrations that were responsible for the growth and planning of Airline companies at the expense and privilege of using them for political ends.
Welcome to the end of the era of national airlines. Their role and serving need has come to past, and more so with current markets dynamics for which neither airlines were prepared for. Times have indeed changed,and state imperatives can no longer perpetuate services that escape the logic of commerce, customer appreciation and accountability; in the words sung by a famous troubadour, " you can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all of the time".
We would like to extend our most hearten Welcome to Mr. Ryan and his company which will expect to carry up 60,000 passengers annually and maintain 60 jobs in Cyprus. We hope that this welcome be least affected by the tensions and the apparent lack of coordinated plans which have kept the
unions, the parliament and agencies without a clue on how European union will accept the new contingency plan for keeping the Mouflons and competitiveness flying in Cyprus.