in-cyprus 20 March 2020 -Edited by Josephine Koumettou
Cypriots stranded in the UK will be flown home on two charter flights, of which one is an Aegean flight from Heathrow to depart in the early morning hours of Saturday, the CNA reported on Friday citing insider information.
A second flight is being planned whose departure time is yet to be decided, although it was said that it would depart from either London or Manchester.
The same source said that as far as repatriation goes, priority is given to the UK as most of the requests from Cypriot nationals come from there.
“The national crisis management centre is focusing on the UK where over 500 people asked to be repatriated,” they said.
Regarding Greece, it was mentioned that no particular issues have been encountered with repatriation, with the majority having found seats on already scheduled flights.
Some chartered flights may reportedly arrive at Larnaca or Paphos airports after the decree prohibiting all passenger flights comes into force at 3 am on Saturday, March 21.
Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides told the CyBC on Friday morning that the deadline applies to scheduled flights and not charter flights.
He said that a total of 1,300 Cypriots abroad have declared their interest for repatriation.
Excluding those who already arrived, some 1,000 are yet to be repatriated.
Minister of Transport Yiannis Karousos said on Thursday that the hotline 24841100 has been set up for those stranded in the UK who fulfil the criteria to be repatriated. The centre will be in operation from 8 am to 8 pm on Friday.
