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These figures were presented by Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Yannis Karousos at today's Flight Safety Foundation conference entitled "The impact of Covid-19 on air transport, lessons learned and preparing for the future."
In a speech read by Director General of the Ministry of Transport Stavros Michael, Mr. Karousos said that today's conference is taking place at a very critical time for aviation and congratulated the Flight Safety Foundation and the European Association of Aviation Training and Education Organization (EATEO) for their initiative to organize this event.
As noted over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised the need for a different approach to address the major challenges with our country, as a remote island nation located on the border of the European Union, relying on aviation for its connectivity needs. Because of this, he said, and as a result of the series of measures taken against COVID-19, Cyprus suffered the devastating effects on the aviation sector caused by the pandemic.
The Cypriot economy, the Minister said, is heavily dependent on air transport with aviation and tourism contributing more than 20% of GDP.
The restrictions imposed on the fundamental right of free movement in the EU halted the momentum in 2019 that was developing in the aviation and tourism sector and forced the Cypriot government to take radical and generous measures in 2020 to close and reopen airports, he said, noting that the aim of these measures, apart from protecting public health, was to help restart and recover the tourism industry and the economy.
However, Karousos continued in his speech, and despite the severe recession, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, following a very focused and effective management strategy to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, managed to rank Cyprus as the 6th country in Europe with the lowest percentage reduction in air traffic. This, he explained, was achieved by offering airlines an incentive programme that allowed them to include new routes to and from Cyprus and share the risk with the government.
Next, the Minister, saying that air connectivity, both at national and European level, is among the top priorities of the Government, said that the Ministry has taken an initiative in the EU by promoting the Declaration on Air Connectivity, which aims to revitalise the airline industry and to promote the development of the air transport sector. At the same time, we aim to improve the connectivity of Cyprus by creating an attractive environment for airlines that will support them in their decisions to expand their flight schedules," he said, and welcomed the addition of new destinations to which Cyprus is now connected, namely Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Marseille and other destinations in Central Europe and the Nordic countries.
At the same time, Mr Karousos expressed his satisfaction that the Ministry's efforts seem to be bearing fruit. As shown by the statistics of passenger traffic in 2022, he added, arrivals at Larnaca and Paphos airports are very encouraging.
Giving statistics, he said that in April 2022, almost two hundred and ninety thousand tourists arrived in Cyprus, compared to just thirty-eight thousand in April 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, five hundred and thirty-four thousand tourists travelled to Cyprus, reaching 77.7% of the arrivals in the same period in 2019. He also noted that preliminary statistics for May also show that arrivals will steadily increase ahead of the summer holiday season.
"We are confident that this year's statistics will improve, despite the sad development with the Russian war in Ukraine and the possibility of a new pandemic outbreak in the near future," he noted.
In the area of Air Navigation Services, Mr. Karousos said that the Ministry has adopted a very ambitious and important program to upgrade both the infrastructure and the quality of services offered to airlines.
Despite the financial restrictions imposed at EU level on the cost of air navigation services, with the support of the Government, the Ministry is involved in an investment programme that includes, among others, the transition to a new building that also hosts a new ATM system, the development of an approach radar service for Larnaca Airport, the complete upgrade of airport navigation equipment and the upgrading of the capacity of the airport's building infrastructure.
In his speech, the Minister then referred to the difficulties caused by the Turkish occupation. He stressed that Turkey's illegal actions in the Nicosia FIR prevent the smooth operation of air traffic and pose additional obstacles to Cyprus' efforts to preserve the safety of flights in the airspace.
He assured those present that President Nicos Anastasiades and the Greek Cypriot side continue their struggle to end Turkey's provocative stance and resume negotiations leading to a solution to the Cyprus problem as outlined in the relevant UN Resolutions.
The Minister said the Government is promoting various policies that will help build strong foundations in the air transport sector. He said that we recognise that we must continue to improve our services and design an alternative tourism product that will stand out among our competitors and assured that we are working to ensure an attractive environment for airlines to include Cyprus in their schedule and increase Cyprus' air connectivity.
In conclusion, Mr Karousos congratulated the Flight Safety Foundation and EATEO for organising this conference.
The Regional Director of the European Office of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Nicolas Rallo, and the Director General of EUROCONTROL, Eamonn Brennan, attended and spoke at the conference.
During the conference, Memoranda of Understanding were signed between the Ministry, the Flight Safety Foundation, EUROCONTROL and EATEO.
Source: KYPE
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