Saturday, 22 June 2013
Thursday, 20 June 2013
More Aid
Country pledges to stick to terms of €10bn bailout after president's appeal for more help is turned down

- Helena Smith in Athens
- View all9comments
Cyprus has pledged to stick with the terms of its €10bn (£8.6bn) bailout after EU officials signalled they would reject an appeal from the country's president, Nicos Anastasiades, for additional help.
Three months after accepting a deal with international creditors, the government in Nicosia denied reports that it had demanded an overhaul.
Cyprus claimed that Anastasiades had been trying to alert fellow leaders to the economic problems in the island republic when, last week, he wrote to them pleading for more help for its banking sector.
"There is no attempt to renegotiate the memorandum of understanding," said a spokesman. The programme co-ordinated by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the EU includes raids on Cypriot bank accounts containing more than €100,000.
The notion of further bank aid was slapped down by EU policymakers on Wednesday. As in Greece, adjustments to the bailout could be made further down the line but only if the island stuck to the conditions of the rescue package, they said.
"There's no chance we'll revise the terms of the bailout," one official told Reuters. The official conceded, however, that the matter could be discussed when eurozone finance ministers meet in Luxembourg on Thursday ahead of next week's summit.
Despite Nicosia insisting it would implement the onerous conditions of the programme, the rejection once again raised the spectre of the island exiting the single currency. Ladbrokes cut the odds on Cyprus leaving the euro in the next 12 months to evens.
Indicative of the frustration felt by officials in Nicosia, Anastasiades described the bailout in his letter as insufficiently prepared. "Artificial measures" such as capital controls, imposed to prevent a mass outflow of money when it became clear that depositors would also be forced to endure losses as part of the bailout agreement, were eroding confidence in the banking sector by the day, he said.
"It is my humble submission that the bail-in was implemented without careful preparation," the leader wrote in his letter. "There was no clear understanding of how a bail-in was to be implemented; legal issues are being raised and major delays in completing the process are being observed." Referring to the haircut to Cypriot bank deposits, he added: "Moreover, no distinction was made between long-term deposits earning high returns and money flowing through current accounts, such as firms' working capital."
As a result, he said, businesses had suffered significant loss of working capital, driving the economy into deeper recession.
"The success of the programme approved by the Eurogroup and the troika depends upon the emergence of a strong and viable Bank of Cyprus. It is for this reason that I urge you to support a long-term solution to Bank of Cyprus's thin liquidity position."
In a first for a eurozone member state, the island accepted to enforce steep losses on large, uninsured deposit holders at its two biggest banks, Cyprus Popular Bank PCL – also known as Laiki – and the Bank of Cyprus. In exchange for €10bn in rescue loans from the EU and IMF, it also agreed to press ahead with €13bn worth of measures to cut its deficit in addition to winding down Laiki.
Anastasiades said Cyprus had been made to pay an excessive price for the restructuring of Greece's own debt to which Cypriot banks had been heavily exposed.
"The heavy burden placed on Cyprus by the restructuring of Greek debt was not taken into consideration when it was Cyprus' turn to seek help," he wrote. "At this crucial juncture, we are calling upon you for active and tangible support."
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
iPads for Tui Reps
Tui ships iPads to Cyprus, mobilising staff to interact
Tui Travel has started trialling use of iPads with its overseas reps and digital notice boards in properties in Cyprus ahead of a roll out to all its destinations next year.
Ian Chapman, director of holiday experience at the travel giant, said the use of technology was all about enhancing the customer experience as Tui seeks to put distance between it and its opposition along with its exclusive 'differentiated' hotels.
Customers will also be offered free Wi-Fi in coaches on transfers and in most hotel public areas.
Arming reps with iPads - 75 had been shipped to Cyprus - is intended to encourage direct contact between in-resort staff and customers allowing them to ask questions and plan their trip, including booking childcare and excursions before they travel. In-store agents could also use them to make inquiries on behalf of clients.
The additional services the technology will offer emanate from customer research and focus groups Tui has conducted with one million clients. The initiative will be available to customers through the new MyThomson and MyFirstChoice mobile apps launched last week.
Chapman said: "Prior to departure we are going to give customers far more information. They can get information direct from the holiday advisor, they will see pictures of their rep and all the holiday details.
"Before they go consumers can download their welcome meeting but these will be very targeted to couples, families, people who are returning. Consumers want to know about their demographic and care more about what they want to do on holiday."
Interactive notice boards in hotels will feature Twitter feeds and live information about transfer departures and flights and videos showcasing activities.
Customers will receive a personal email from their rep offering information about the hotel and resort. Chapman said it will enable Tui to promote its expertise in answering detailed questions from customers above and beyond other web-based information services including Google.
"Just as we are differentiating our hotels, providing customers with holidays they cannot find elsewhere, we are doing the same with the service we provide.
"We are mobilising our teams overseas and making them more accessible to holidaymakers, so they can further benefit and utilise their expertise before departing or whilst sat by the pool."
Other services that will be offered include pre-departure hotel check-in, activity planners and downloadable out and about guides.
The Cyprus Holiday Village has opened a Twitter feeds under the identity @HVCyprus.
In total just under 1,000 iPads will be distributed across Tui's destinations worldwide once roll out is complete.
Staff have undergone social media training, Chapman said, and Tui has implemented a social media protocol and staff issued a list of dos and donts. "We have told to our staff they are all responsible. They know what needs to be done, they have free reign to interact with customers," he said. Staff have been asked to respond to requests and questions within 24 hours.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Interesting read
May 01, 2013 15:00PM GMT
0 Comments and 1251564227 Reactions
A passenger aircraft had a narrow miss with an unidentified object, later described by the pilot as a posible "microlight", while flying into Glasgow airport.
A report by the UK Airprox Board said investigators were unable to determine what the object was during the incident involving the Airbus A320 on December 2.
The report reveals that as the aircraft made its final approach to Glasgow Airport on December 2 the pilot saw an "object ‘loom ahead’ at a range of about 100m".
The pilot assessed the risk of collission as "high" after the object - which was described as "bigger than a balloon" - passed about 300ft underneath the aircraft.
A cockpit transcript from the report includes a conversation between the aircraft staff and a controller at Glasgow Airport. The pilot asked the controller if there was "anything in the area" after seeing the blue and yellow object.
When asked if he thought it may have been a "glider or something like that" the pilot replied: "Well maybe a microlight. It just looked too big for a balloon."
At the time of the incident, the A320 was flying with its landing lights on and in clear conditions.
Search action was taken with no result and the A320 pilot stated his intention to file an Airprox, which investigates near misses.
The Airprox report concluded: "Investigation of the available surveillance sources was unable to trace any activity matching that described by the A320 pilot. Additionally there was no other information to indicate the presence or otherwise of activity in the area."
The report said the board deemed it unlikely that the object was a fixed wing aircraft, helicopter or hot air balloon. It was also thought that a meteorological balloon would appear on the radar.
The report said the Airprox board could not discount the object being a glider, but said it was unlikely that one would be operating in the area because of low temperatures and constrained airspace.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Cyprus decides on a bailout thin majority says yes
By Michele Kambas
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus's parliament decides on Tuesday whether to back a bailout imposed by its EU partners, with approval likely from a thin majority against mounting calls for the island to exit the euro.
Lawmakers were due to meet in an extraordinary session at 4 p.m. (2:00 p.m. British time) to ratify the terms of the aid, which is conditional on Cyprus winding down its second-largest bank and slapping heavy losses on uninsured depositors in another.
No single party has a majority in the 56-member parliament, and the government is counting on support from members of its three party centre-right coalition which have 29 seats in total.
"The situation is extremely difficult," said Finance Minister Harris Georgiades. Without a bailout, Cyprus would face "incomparably tougher difficulties" and a fiscal "nightmare", he told lawmakers on Monday.
Communist AKEL, in government until it lost presidential elections in February, said it planned to vote against. It has 19 seats in parliament. The socialist Edek party, with 5 seats, said it would also reject the bill.
Attempts to agree on a bailout triggered financial chaos on the island last month, when parliament rejected an initial plan to force both insured and uninsured depositors - those holding less than 100,000 euros (84,517 pounds) in savings - to pay a levy to fund the recapitalisation of two banks heavily exposed to debt-crippled Greece.
It was followed by a two-week shutdown of banks. The fallback option was to wind down one of the banks, Laiki, and impose losses of up to 60 percent in uninsured deposits in a second, Bank of Cyprus.
AKEL, which had made the initial application for financial aid in June 2012, said onerous terms offered by Cyprus's EU partners were compelling enough for the island to seek alternative sources of funding.
"Cyprus's only option is a solution outside the loan agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding. Seeking such a solution is possibly tantamount to a decision to exit the euro," it said in a statement.
(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)


