Three new airline incentive schemes, designed to stimulate the growth of tourism to Cyprus, have been announced by the Cypriot Ministry of Communications and Works government and Hermes Airports.
Speaking in a press conference, Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzou said the three schemes, drafted by the Ministries of Communications and Finance, in collaboration with Hermes, aim at attracting tourist arrivals mainly from new destinations through a discount in airport charges.
The airport charges reduction cost will be shared by Hermes at a rate of 64.48% and by the government at 35.52%.
The first scheme concerns the introduction of new routes and is addressed to airlines that would increase their total passenger volumes with the introduction of new routes to Cyprus.
The second scheme covers the winter tourist season for the period of November to March including airlines that would increase their passenger transportation to Cyprus from current destinations with the exemption of ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' in Athens and London's Heathrow.
The third scheme is an incentive scheme for the development of long-term passenger transportation up to five years, addressed to airlines that would base aircraft at Larnaca and Pafos airports and that would commit in a five-year development plan by introducing new routes or by increasing their passenger delivery volumes to Cyprus from current routes.
''The adoption of these measures aims at boosting tourism in Cyprus, so that the international competition would be faced,'' Flourentzou said, adding that these measures are introduced as a response by the government to low-cost airlines, which described Cyprus' airport charges as high.
Flourentzou also explained that the bigger the passenger transportation the bigger the airport charges reduction. He said that if an airline transports more than 250,000 passengers to Cyprus annually it would enjoy a discount of 25 euro per arriving passenger.
On his part, Hermes Chairman Iacovos Iacovou said the agreement will assist Cyprus tourism in these very difficult circumstances.
''Our aim is to bring more passengers to Cyprus,'' he added.
Responding to questions, Iacovou said these measures are anticipated to attract tourist flows especially from Russia, pointing out that the efforts aims at attracting new flights from all European countries in general.
