Ryan Air, a Mixed Blessing?

The recent agreement between Hermes airports and Ryan Air for the opening of their 50th operational base in Europe has to be looked at as both a blessing and a curse. We can count the blessings as follows.-
1. Ryan air will be committed to invest a substantial amount of money in order for the operational base to become viable.

2. Ryan Air will set tourist targets and when met this means a significant increase in tourist traffic to Cyprus. One can look at the success of Ryan Airs partnership with Spanish airports such as Girona and Reus.

3. Ryan Air is not into just one specific market such as the bucket shop package traveller, they are for the first time targeting the free independent traveller (FIT).

Like all blessings we should receive them gratefully, but at the same time we have to managing them correctly. Ryan Air, flying in plane loads of multiple blessings to Pafos means we have to look seriously at what we, as one half of the partnership can offer in return. According to the press officer of Pafos Hoteliers Association Mr. Evripides Loizides he summed up the current dilemma that is dancing around the minds of clear minded Pafos based businesses. ‘Ryan Air has arrived, but its now time we started to get really serious as a tourist destination’.

To date the Pafos tourist scene is viewed with pessimism by those in the business and there is a genuine fear that sectors within the market are not going to be entirely responsive to the demands made by this new wave of travellers.

A complete change of attitude has to start from the top down with our elected officials now having to waken up to the fact that with the arrival of independent tourists we have to quite simply ‘clean up our act’ and instead of the usual indifference and apathy, our municipal and community leaders have to get into the mind set of sustainability rather than ‘fast attainability.

We must also address the expected increase in traffic going to and from the airport, with there being a more noticeable demand for car rentals, taxi hire, mini buses etc, modes of transport which will carry more tourists but in much smaller groups. Pessimism is rife as to the anticipated increase in accident rates as our less than civil taxi drivers continue to follow the ‘old ways’ of unbridled rudeness mixed with a good dose of road rage. Deep pessimism also abounds when it comes to those restaurants who will no doubt continue their blinkered short term thinking by offering  their usual serving of ‘customer scare’ rather than the anticipated ‘customer care’.

What’s actually needed is for us to all to be re educated into what exactly the art of tourism really is, how we must now be ready to play a new and effective role, rather than re-enact our constipated, lack lustre, short term mind set formed over the past disastrous decade.

The opportunity offered to us by claiming Pafos as a European Capital of Culture in 2017 coupled with the Ryan Air arrival are ‘good sparks’ which should be igniting the flame of a ‘healthy tourism fire’. The pessimist in me however worries that we may have the making of such a fire but sadly no –one has brought alone the matches.

The Ryan Air agreement could be compared to morphine in that this is an opiate which doubles as both a form of pain relief and as an addictive drug which, if taken to excess results in a slow death. Our sole dependency on Ryan Air can also be viewed as dangerous if we become too addicted, as we have experienced to our cost when we depend so much on tour operators.

Surely the avowed aim to the tourist sector by the state and Cyprus Airports has to be the practice of  healthy independence with no more reliance on addictive practises so we can at long last transform Pafos into an attractive sustainable tourist destination which thrives year in year out without recourse to entering into any unholy, inappropriate, or short term relationships.

Cyprus Airways president resigns - Kikis Lazarides leaves Cyprus Airways

The President of the board of directors of Cyprus Airways, Kikis Lazarides,  presented his resignation to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Demetris Christofias. Mr Lazarides was assigned to this position by the recently deceased last president Tasos Papadopoulos back in 2004.

Everything seems to point that Lazarides has found hard core reactions in both inside and outside the company,  while he wanted to put order in the turbulent economics and politics of the state owned airline.
The scandal of Eurocypria, the ex sister airline of Cyprus airways, that broke a few weeks ago, when suddenly the Cypriot citizen has realized that politicians of many political colours,  have cheated the parliament  to release 35 million Euros to save Eurocyopria last winter  from guaranteed bankruptcy , is only the tip of the iceberg. The General Accountant of the Republic of Cyprus in his report about Cyprus air transport points very clearly the it is unviable and unsustainable  to have 2 state owned airlines in Cyprus and therefore an immediate merge of the two airlines was the first step to survival.

Lazarides, former Banker , president of Laiki Polular Bank, now Marfin Laiki Bank, has found himself in the centre of the hurricane and today he decided to resign. He leaves behind him an uncertain future for the Airline that lacks of flexibility and has very little character of a modern company.  Cyprus Airlines is used to monopolistic routes and has very little view of how the world of air transport has changed the last years. Closed in the walls themselves have built, the airline suffers from the CCSS (Cypriot Civil Servant Syndrome). A virus that lately has been without any vaccination in Cyprus.

The state is the sole owner of both airlines in Cyprus, this creates the perfect scenery for corruption and private political agendas to flourish.  This year is a very tough year for the fragile Cypriot Tourism industry, crisis of this type should be avoided or given a quick and very effective solution. Maybe is time for the Cypriot politicians and micro-politicians to stay out of the management of vital sectors such as air transport.
Cyprus is a profitable destination especially if someone looks the geographic location of the island, with two new airports (run privately)  that are a jewel of out tourism crown, a new generation airline should be born from this.

Lazarides left by himself, what are the others going to do? Would they give up too? My guess is that there is more than one who likes Lazarides chair, people who like political positions but they know they will never be elected not even for the Backgammon club of their village.

My opinion that there is not enough meat for all the vultures on this corpse, but vultures at the end fight amongst themselves for the last piece of skin.

Larnaca Airport, the only jewel

The unfortunate black-out of the runways in Larnaca Airport has created in my opinion too much noise. Hermes Airports has proven to be an efficient and very responsible company delivering without one day of delay 2 brand new airports for Cyprus according to the planed and signed schedule.

Hermes airports is the only company who made Cypriots proud the last years. The international airports of Paphos (PFO) and Larnaca (LCA) are definitely the only jewel on the Cypriot Crown. The Republic of Cyprus has never been able to deliver any public work without creating a wave of corruption scandals (I remind you XEKTE who built the highway Nicosia – Limassol and many other scandals that have also been pointed in various reports throughout the years) , the 2 airports have been the only public works that have actually finished on time and worked on time sine the independence of Cyprus.

The operation of the two airports is not an easy job, accidents and unfortunate happenings will happen until the “intestine” of the airports is smooth.  I was present at a major black-out of the Boston airport due to extreme weather conditions, I was also “captured” by extreme weather in London Heathrow that caused serious problems in the operation of the Airport but I did not experiment the criticism of the politicians.
Cypriot politicians should not make any comment, on the contrary they should think that they live in a “glass house” and a minor stone could demolish it. Politicians in Cyprus have managed in 30 years to convince the Cypriot citizens, that when it comes to public works are incapable to bring them to a good port.

If I were a political figure in Cyprus I would go out and ask for forgiveness for not doing my job for so many years.