Fight for the sky as air row flares – The race is on to be the first North Cyprus Airlines to fly into Ercan, as Prime Minister Irsen Küçük has threatened legal action against a company registered in the name of the new national flag carrier. The name North Cyprus Airlines was registered at Companies House in Cardiff on October 18th last year by Turkish Cypriot Alpan Uz. The name was unveiled on Tuesday and it was only after the unveiling ceremony that Mr Uz revealed he had registered the name in the UK. Mr Küçük stormed: “It is illegal for the name North Cyprus to be used. The announcement of this company at a time when the new national flag carrier was being set up could be described as a preplanned ploy”.
Meanwhile the proposed March launch of the government airline seems to be sliding back to April.
Mr Uz claimed in a public statement that he intended to launch his own airline to provide “Turkish Cypriots in the TRNC and UK with good quality air transport” following the failure of CTA. Cyprus Today can reveal that he also registered the name North Cyprus Turkish Airlines with Companies House on the same date and claims he had first applied in March 2009 – 15 months before CTA was grounded.
The government appears to have a solid case against Mr Uz, whose forays into housing development in North Cyprus are claimed to have left dozens of buyers out-of-pocket. The Companies act of 2006 states that complaints can be made against names “to be made where a company has been registered with the intention of extracting money from the complainant or to prevent him from registering a name in which he has good will”.
Mr Uz said competition would raise the quality of service and “we have instructed our solicitors to apply for a civil aviation licence for the TRNC and Turkey. They will be making the application on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.”
Airline Take – off stalled by registration delays – The new North Cyprus Airlines scheduled for take off in March, might not take to the skies until April. So far it has not been registered as a company in Turkey and has not applied to the Civil Aviation Authorities in the UK or the TRNC. It is anticipated that Turkish registration should happen in February. Aircraft operations certificates then have to be applied for. Without this internet ticket sales can not be started.
Destinations for the new airline will be Ercan, Stansted, Istanbul Atatürk,Istanbul Sabiha Gõkçen, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, Kayseri, Hatay, Adana and Gaziantep. Additional direct flights to Trabzon would also be introduced in the following year.
Public Works and Transportation Minister Hamza Ersan Saner said “I would like to tell all our expat residents and all the victims (of the collapse of CTA) that they will be able to use their unused tickets to fly to the destinations of the new airline.”
There is no date set for ticket sales to start or an actual launch date for the new airline.
Niyazi Aydeniz (Deniz Kizi Hotel) and Unal Gağıner owner of the Acapulco Holiday complex are two of the shareholders.
‘Massive’ strike is threatened – Union leaders say that they will hold the biggest demonstration in the TRNC’s history. Public sector strikes have continued this week. Members of the Trade Unions Platform say they will bring the country to a standstill on January 28th. Mr Küçük said he would not bow down to pressure and step down.
Plea for peace ‘Plan B’ – An appeal for a “Plan B” in Cyprus if peace talks fail – signed by more than 200 groups- was yesterday handed over to the UN at Ledra Palace checkpoint. The letter was drawn up by ATCA (Association of Turkish Cypriots Abroad. Amongst the supporters are BRS and HBPG.
Former staff accuse CTA of ‘inhumane’ treatment – Article has been covered in NCFP.
Hormone-enhanced fruit and veg may go on sale despite ban – Hormone – enhanced fruit and vegetables could be on sale in North Cyprus despite a ban – because the government lacks the equipment to test for such chemicals. Hormonally enhanced foods were banned in North Cyprus in the 1980’s.
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