The Rebranding Saga Continues ...
Not sure if we can look forward to daily reports on the Helios rebranding saga, but it will be quite interesting to follow. Here is today's article on the Cyprus Mail Internet edition:
Government says no green light for new airline
By John Leonidou
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Haris Thrasou yesterday denied claims that Helios Airways would soon be operating under the name of ajet.
Libra Holdings Group (LHG) which is one of the biggest UK-based tour operators and which owns Helios, had announced on March 13 that it was ready to create a new charter airline, which will use the aircraft and resources of Helios.
Last August, an Helios Airways flight bound for Athens crashed into mountainside just north of the Greek capital killing all 121 passengers and crew members on board.
Still reeling after tragic crash, Helios has been unable to fully recover and has caused multi-million in losses to LHG, which is listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange.
Libra chief executive Andreas Drakos had previously told the Cyprus Mail that ajet would be mainly carrying out charter flights, unlike Helios, which also operated scheduled flights.
Thrasou yesterday described the announcement of Libra as “somewhat vague” adding that an operator’s licence had yet to be given to ajet.
“For any airline company to operate it is imperative that they have a certified operator’s licence, something which ajet has yet to obtain. Therefore there announcement is somewhat vague. They say that they are in the final stages of collecting the necessary licenses and that the whole procedure is set to finish very soon. They have said that until that time they will operate on temporary licences – but what temporary licences and how have A-Jet deduced that they are allowed to operate on temporary licences?
Speaking about media reports that an airplane would arrive on the island on Sunday under the livery of aet, Thrasou said that every airline is allowed to change the livery on its aircrafts if they want to.
“However, they cannot change their name to ajet”, said the Minister “and that is because Helios had sent a request to the Civil Aviation in January 2006 requesting that their fleet and company change to the name ajet but it was declined.
“Some time later, a new company arrived on the scene requesting the issue of an operator’s licence and operator’s certificate. That procedure began but there are still some loose legal terms that have to be looked into before anything can be issued. In fact we have requested the help of the Attorney-General to aid us on a few of the matters.”
He added that the whole matter is still in the shadow of the tragedy of Helios flight ZU 522 and that it wasn’t possible to simply write off a company that is currently being investigated because of air crash.
The Director of the Civil Aviation Department Leonidas Leonidou supported Thrasou’s comments, adding that a plane under the name ajet had requested to take off from Cyprus recently but was refused permission from the Civil Aviation.
“They are allowed to plan flights but it was one thing to plan flights and another thing to actually execute flights. In this case, the plane did not have the necessary credentials and was not allowed to leave.”
Meanwhile, in a press conference yesterday, DISY deputy Giorgos Georgiou said that Helios was attempting to weave itself out of the investigation by converting their company to A-Jet. He added that the government was also taking unprecedented measures to make sure that nothing was being done to stop Helios from being written off.
Giorgiou also noted that the government’s “guilty silence” was a clear indication that the requests for ajet, which would be operating with the Helios fleet, would be approved in the near future.
The Managing Director of the new airline, Bryan Field told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday that its new charter airline was not Helios in disguise but “a completely different business model.”
He added that Helios Airways would remain a subsidiary of LHG but without any operations while awaiting the results of the Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board (AAIASB) probe into last August’s air crash.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005