Filenews 1 June 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
By the end of June, the firefighting forces will be reinforced with two planes, while the news from the offers for two firefighting helicopters is also positive.
The efforts of the Department of Forests to strengthen this year with a total of eight aerial means instead of the six it had last year seem to come to fruition, since yesterday the Tenders Council gave the green light to rent two firefighting planes from the Spanish company, which also manages the other two that are temporarily based at Larnaka airport.
As "F" recently wrote, the two American-made "air tractor" planes are currently in Chile and as the director of the Department of Forests Charalambos Alexandrou told us, as soon as the Spanish company is informed about the development, it will proceed to secure the relevant certificates for the aircraft and their crews, and then they will fly to Cyprus and will be ready for work at the end of June. The delay that was observed since the Department wanted them here in early June, was due to the procedures so that everything would be made legal and the aircraft and pilots had the necessary documents.
The choice of "air tractor" aircraft was the only one left to the Department of Forests and the Government, since the two attempts to lease firefighting helicopters from other countries did not come to fruition.
Meanwhile, at the end of the week, the evaluation of the offers for the rental of the two helicopters, which will come to replace the two Russian "Kamovs", which could not fly to Cyprus, due to the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, is completed. As Mr Alexandrou mentioned, there are offers from European companies as well as from an eastern country and after their evaluation the choice will be made, so that we can soon have them in our fleet as well.
It is noted that the rental of the two firefighting aircraft that are already in Cyprus costs €1.68 million. and the amount is co-financed 75% by the European Union. They have the capacity to carry three tons of firefighting material, while they have a two-member crew.
Finally, it is mentioned that the two aircraft already available to the Department of Forests will be based in Larnaca, the two received on May 18th will be based in Akrotiri in Limassol, while the other two that will come from Chile, will have their base in Paphos.
