You are here

Stelios against Hermes monopoly

25/10/2010 08:35
Businessman and shareholder of EasyJet, Stelios Hadjiioannou recommended that the two international airports of the country must be autonomous and criticized the state for its decision to create a private monopoly.

In his interview to Sunday Phileleftheros and invited to evaluate the efficiency of the island’s international airports, Mr. Hadjiioannou said that the decision to grant both airports to the same company is shortsighted.

“When the two airports became private, I could not understand why the government decided to give both of them to the same company. This is what Margaret Thatcher had done with BAA, that is, she merged all three London Airports in one private company and she listed it to the LSE. And a proverb says “There's only one thing worst than a monopoly, and that is a private monopoly”.

“Whoever got this decision was very shortsighted. They thought that the revenues would increase and something good would come up, but at the end of the day, competition is necessary for a healthy economy”, he added.

“If someone had a more long-term way of thinking for the tourist industry of Cyprus, he would separate the two airports for the competition. They would give more incentives and the power of competition would be in effect. The most effective of the two would win or they could probably be both ok and the airlines would have the choice to decide where they will execute their flights from”, he said.

Mr. Hadjiioannou also believes in the promotion of flights from regional airports abroad.

“Special emphasis should be given to Germany too, as well as other big European countries”, he noted.

In his interview, Mr. Hadjiioannou also talked about the conditions in the two national carriers.

“Originally, the decision for the establishment of Eurocypria was good because at that time you could have a license for chartered flights but you could not execute scheduled flights at the same time. This policy became out-of-date when those restrictions were lifted”, he noted.

“The idea of having two companies, two trademarks under one ownership and that the one tries to sell seats to tour operators and the other tries to work as direct flights’ company is ineffective. No-one abroad knows Eurocypria so there is no point of trying to promote a second trademark whereas it is difficult enough to even promote Cyprus Airways”, Mr. Hadjiioannou promoted.