Cyprus Turkish Airlines, CTA Holidays plea for direct UK-northern Cyprus flights rejected by court

Cyprus Turkish Airlines (CTA), the flag-carrier airline of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and tour operator CTA Holidays Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cyprus Turkish Airlines, have lost a plea seeking to operate direct flights between the United Kingdom and northern Cyprus. Justice Wyn Williams, at the Birmingham Civil Justice Centre, dismissed the petition filed by Cyprus Turkish Airlines and CTA Holidays Limited seeking to quash the 35-year-old ban on direct flights between the United Kingdom and the Turkish-held northern Cyprus.

The government of the United Kingdom argued in the court that lifting of the ban would violate the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.

At present, flights from the UK to northern Cyprus have to land in Turkey first before proceeding to northern Cyprus.

The denial of direct flight from the UK to northern Cyprus, according to CTA Holidays Limited, results in increased fares, flight times as well as greenhouse-gas emissions.

Each year, CTA Holidays Limited flies around 100,000 visitors from the United Kingdom to northern Cyprus.

Lawyers for CTA Holidays Limited argued in the Birmingham Civil Justice Centre that the UK government’s continued refusal to lift the ban on direct flight to

northern Cyprus is “unlawful and unjust.”

The CTA Holidays also said that permitting direct flights between airports in the United Kingdom and northern Cyprus will have “huge, symbolic importance” for an island that has been divided and also has as “painful modern history.”

It further argued that the ban on direct flights “absolutely has no operational justification” and that the government had “misunderstood” the Chicago Convention.

The flight ban, CTA Holidays argued in the court, “unfairly restricted” Turkish Cypriots and their companies desiring to travel to as well as do business with the member-countries of the European Union and other nations of the world.

The island of Cyprus has been “divided” since 1974, when Turkey invaded northern Cyprus following a military coup that was supported by the government of Greece. Since then, the island has been, in effect, divided – with the Turkish Cypriots inhabiting the northern part, and the Greek Cypriots living in the south.