17.06.2020 - 16:41 UTC
The Government of Cyprus will subsidise airlines over the next six months if they have load factors of 40-70%, to stabilise the sector in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Transport minister Yiannis Karousos on June 10 said the Cypriot council of ministers had approved the incentive scheme to address the consequences of COVID-19 on the country’s air connectivity and aims at immediately re-establishing international passenger traffic.
The scheme will be in place over the next six months and have a budget of EUR6.3 million euros (USD7.15 million). It will be open to all airlines and will be based on aircraft occupancy and will only be granted if an airline can fill at least 40% of the aircraft’s capacity.
“For this reason, an incentive will be paid to the airline companies for a capacity of 41% to 70%, assuming that if the airline company exceeds 70% of aircraft capacity, it will have attained normal market conditions,” Karousos said.
“We anticipate that passenger traffic will reach 37,000 passengers in June, 196,000 in July, 460,000 in August, 634,000...