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Ban on Northern Cyprus flights remains - 29 July 2009

As the battle over the future of Northern Cyprus continues to rage in law courts across Europe, an airline and a tour operator have seen their bid to end a ban on direct flights between the UK and Northern Cyprus end in defeat.

Cyprus Turkish Airlines (CTA) and it tour operator CTA Holidays had sought a judicial review into the ban on direct flights to the occupied northern part of Cyprus in a bid to cut travel times, fuel costs and emissions. The airline flies up to 100,000 passengers from the UK to Northern Cyprus each year, whether they are leisure travelers, business users or owners of property in Northern Cyprus.

The government ban on direct flights to Northern Cyprus has been in place since the invasion of the island in 1974 by Turkish forces, and forces flights to the enclave to touch down in Turkey before carrying on to Northern Cyprus. The government claims that removing the ban on direct flights would breach the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.

CTA and CTA Holidays also claimed that offering direct flights to the Northern part of the island would have huge symbolic impact for the divided island and help to ease its painful modern history, but while the political situation remains unresolved it is unlikely the British government will move from its stance.

It is perhaps the symbolic importance of the gesture of allowing direct flights to Northern Cyprus that is holding the government back from this decision as much as anything else. While there are still court cases continuing over the ownership of properties bought in what is known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and while there is still no accord between the governing parties of the two parts of the island, no government is likely to wish to be seen to favour one side or the other.

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