Cyprus Airways (1947–2015) informations and photos

Cyprus Airways (Public) Ltd. (Greek: Κυπριακές Αερογραμμές Kypriakes Aerogrammes) was the flag carrier airline of Cyprus. It was established in September 1947 and ceased operations on 9 January 2015. Cyprus Airways had its operating base at Larnaca International Airport.

In July 2016, Charlie Airlines acquired the rights to use the Cyprus Airways trademarks and brand.

Cyprus Airways was established on 24 September 1947 as a joint venture between the British Colonial Government of Cyprus, holding 40% of the share capital, British European Airways (BEA) and private interests owning the rest of the company. Operations commenced on 18 April 1948 with three Douglas DC-3 aircraft. The planes, which carried 21 passengers each, flew on a route network centred on Nicosia that included Rome, London (via Athens), Beirut, Athens, Cairo, Istanbul, and Haifa. During the next three years the airline purchased an additional three DC-3 aircraft and introduced services to Alexandria, Amman, Bahrain, Khartoum (via Haifa) and Lod.

In its early years Cyprus Airways was operated effectively as a subsidiary of BEA, not only in its ownership structure, but in its use of BEA crew and cabin staff, and BEA aircraft. In part this was due to restrictions placed on BEA by the British government on serving destinations further east than Cyprus, as such routes were considered the preserve of BEA's rival, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), although both BEA and BOAC were state-owned airlines at the time. With its control of Cyprus Airways, BEA was able to serve key destinations in the Middle East, including Beirut and Cairo, using Cyprus Airways, whilst maintaining the pretence of not flying beyond Cyprus. Paradoxically it was continuing disputes between BEA and BOAC over this issue that led to the first proposals in 1953 to merge BEA and BOAC to form British Airways.

In 1952, BEA took over the Cyprus Airways service to London with an Airspeed Ambassador, which featured a pressurized cabin that allowed nonstop routing avoiding a stopover in Athens. On 18 April 1953, BEA began using its newly delivered Vickers Viscount 701 on their scheduled service from London to Rome and Athens. The continuing sector from Athens to Nicosia was operated by BEA under charter to Cyprus Airways. This route from London to Nicosia was the world's first regular turboprop service.

In 1956, contemplating expansion of its routes, Cyprus Airways ordered two Vickers Viscount 756 aircraft that would be named St Hilarion (registration G-APCD) and Buffavento (G-APCE), but sold them before receiving them because of the deteriorating political situation in Cyprus. It also decided to sell all the Douglas DC-3 and Auster aircraft in September 1957 and entered into a five-year agreement with BEA for the latter to operate services on behalf of Cyprus Airways. As a result, BEA took over the operation of all Cyprus Airways services from 26 January 1958.

The government of newly independent Cyprus became the majority shareholder in 1960 with a 53.2 percent holding, while BEA's stake was reduced to 22.7 percent and private individuals held the rest. Thereafter, Cypriot nationals began to be hired and trained for the flight crews, which had previously been made up of British expatriates from BEA. Cyprus Airways still relied on BEA for aircraft and backroom support. BEA began introducing Comet 4B jets on all routes in 1961 via a joint aircraft pool arrangement that included Greece's Olympic Airways.

On 5 April 1960, BEA introduced de Havilland Comet 4B aircraft on the Nicosia, Athens, Rome and London routes. With the introduction of the Comets, Cyprus Airways became the first airline in the Middle East to have jet airplanes. The Comets flew in the BEA livery, but had the Cyprus Airways logo and title above their doors.

In 1965, Cyprus Airways began leasing its own Viscounts from BEA for regional routes. The Comet and Viscount aircraft were replaced with five Trident jets, three of them acquired from BEA. The first Hawker Siddeley Trident jet was introduced in November 1969. Cyprus also leased a BAC 1-11. The faster planes allowed more European trade centres (Frankfurt, Manchester, Brussels, and Paris) to be added to the timetable.

At the start of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the attack on Nicosia airport caught all five of Cyprus Airways aircraft on the ground. Of the four Tridents stranded at Nicosia International Airport one was destroyed by Turkish Air force rocket fire and wreckage of its tail still exists at that airport and one was damaged by small arms fire remaining in the same position today as it did in 1974. The two other Tridents were only lightly damaged by small arms fire and were flown out of Nicosia by British Airways engineers to the United Kingdom in 1977. The team from British Airways was assisted by a British Army team from the UN Peace Keeping (UNFICYP) REME Workshop based in Nicosia.

They used their 6x6 Leyland Recovery vehicle to remove the tail section of one of the destroyed planes and to lift the repaired engines into place. When the Tridents flew out (the Turks would not give permission for test flights, once they took off they were not allowed to return) they were the first planes to use the runway since U Thant flew in and out on a UN flight. One of these is at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, England, although it has been returned to its original BEA livery. Also flown out was the company's BAC1-11 which was claimed by the insurers of the lessor, Court-Line, which had gone bankrupt. That aircraft returned to Cyprus Airways in 1978 and served with the company until 1995.

All of the Cypriot airline's operations had to be suspended following the end of the hostilities in 1974 because Nicosia International Airport, the only airport of the island, had to be closed. Although the Turkish troops did not capture it, they were close enough to it to demand that it not be reopened. The government of Cyprus then moved quickly to build a small terminal by a runway in Larnaca and Cyprus Airways restarted limited operations from there on 8 February 1975. Specifically the airline leased from British Midland Airways Viscount turboprops to fly a stripped down route network to a few key cities in the region: Beirut, Tel Aviv, and Athens via Heraklion, with connections to London on British Airways. Cyprus Airways leased a pair of DC-9 jets in August 1975 to resume its own flights to London (via Salonika).

The acquisition of a DC-8 several months later allowed for non-stop service. Cyprus also added flights to Saudi Arabia at this time. The company was soon able to order a pair of new BAC 1-11s, added to the sister aircraft already in the fleet. The economic loss of the Turkish invasion to the airline was estimated to be 1.6 million Cypriot pounds. To survive, the airline decided to reduce the salaries of all its employees to minimum, who accepted it.

The airline ordered still more different aircraft types in the late 1970s which replaced some earlier aircraft coming off lease.

By 1981, Cyprus's fleet included four Boeing 707-123B (1979–1989) and three BAC One-Eleven 500. The route network again extended from Manchester, England, to Baghdad. A change in ownership structure had taken place, with British Airways selling all but 5 percent of the shares it had inherited from BEA to the Cypriot government. Private investors owned the remainder (24.14 percent).

Cyprus made a transition to Airbus aircraft over the course of the decade. Its first A310 widebodies arrived in 1984, followed by A320s in 1989. The order for the eight A320s was worth more than DEM 250 million.

Cyprus Airways was one of the first airlines to operate the Airbus A310, the eighth airline in the world to receive the Airbus A320, and the first airline that launched the IAE V2500 engine along with Adria Airways.

Profits reached record levels in the mid-1980s as the airline added service from new UK cities (Cardiff, Newcastle, and Glasgow). Income of CYP 4.8 million (DEM 8 million) in 1983, a record, would be tripled three years later. By this time, the airline was carrying 740,000 passengers a year.

British Airways divested the last of its shares in 1991, leaving the government with an 80.46 percent stake and private investors, the remainder. The airline was flying high, introducing a livery and uniforms as the Airbuses plied new routes to Berlin and Helsinki. Cyprus Airways had also joined the SABRE international computer reservations system and set up a tour operation in the United Kingdom.

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