Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said last week that the company had “already applied for a Cypriot AOC.”

The certificate – essentially a license to operate – is issued by governments to approved airlines, and AOCs issued by European Union countries warrant ‘mutual recognition’ among all EU countries.

But although Ryanair is an Irish airline – thus licensed to operate by an EU country – it has applied for a Cypriot certificate.

The reason, one business insider told the Cyprus Mail, is Cyprus’ bilateral air services agreements with third – meaning non-EU – countries.

“As a Cypriot company, Ryanair would automatically be able to take advantage of Cyprus’ bilateral agreements with third countries,” the source said under condition of anonymity. “At this moment, there are restricted routes to and from third countries – for example, in the Middle East – that Cyprus Airways has the exclusive rights to, but cannot afford to operate.”

“These would be wide open for any Cypriot AOC holder,” he said.

Last month, Ryanair was short-listed along with eight other carriers by the Cyprus government as interested parties to take over government-owned Cyprus Airways.

But O’Leary later said that he considered his company’s chances of winning the bid war slimmer than those of Greece’s Aegean Airlines – also short-listed.

Nonetheless, he said, Ryanair still plans to make it hard for any other bidder to land Cyprus Airways.

The fate of the struggling national carrier of Cyprus is expected to be decided by November.

“Indeed, that is why any foreign company would be interested in a Cypriot AOC: bilateral air services agreements,” concurred Andreas Paspallides of the CDA.

But access to these agreements would form part of the Cyprus Airways package, meaning the highest bidder for Cyprus Airways will get the airline and its list of possible destinations.

So why would Ryanair want to apply for an AOC independently? “One can only speculate,” the CDA official said. “As far as we are concerned, any application for which the application fee [€17,000 to €18,000] has been paid is under review.”

It is likely that Ryanair’s move is an effort to scare off rivals by making the competition environment less attractive.

According to Phileleftheros, the airline has pushed for an expedited review of its application so that it can be issued with an AOC within two months.

“Generally, the timeline for reviewing such applications and coming to final decisions extends to at least 90 days,” said Paspallides.

“Everything needs to be reviewed – manuals, documents, and so on – and then remarks need to be passed back to the applicants for comment. It’s a lot of work, and there’s only a few of us.”

Source: Cyprus Mail