My summer holiday this year was to Crete with Olympic holidays. As a charter company Eurocypriaairlines were the airline allocated after originally being booked with Monarch, an old favourite of mine, but for some inexplicable and unexplained reason Olympic changed the airline. Who am I to question the bureaucratic idiosyncrasies of who I fly with to my holiday destination as long as I get there intact and in one piece?
Eurocypria are located in Cyprus, no surprises there as the name is self-explanatory. They were formed in 1991, and were the first Cyprus based charter airline and began operations in 1992. Originally they were one of the few success stories aligned to Cyprus airways but like so many national airlines guilty of poor operational management and because of the dire financial situation they were eventually sold to the government of Cyprus for just over 13 million Cypriot pounds in 2006 as a contingency plan to take over as the Cypriot national airline.
Although Eurocypria first started with airbus 320s they now have a fleet of six Boeing 737-800s the last being delivered in April of this year. This sounded good to me as I am a fan of the Boeing 737. They do run a minimal
amount of scheduled routes, but mainly to obscure European airports, their main forte being in the charter sector.
CHECK-IN
After arrival at Gatwick with my customary extra hour allowed to meet any unknown issues I was very surprised to find the Eurocypria check-in desk already open a full three hours before the flight. My surprise was also my delight as the luggage was checked in, seats allocated, and we were on our way to the departure lounge inside five minutes. Check-in was faultless.
THE AIRCRAFT
The Boeing 737-800 is a state of the art machine and is fitted with all the latest navigational and charter airline entertainment technology. Coloured white and silver with white wingtips and the Eurocypria logo decorating the side and tailfin. All their aircraft are named after a mythical wind. The luggage was being loaded and the aircraft re-fuelled as we arrived at the gate.
THE FLIGHTDécor inside the aircraft is the usual dull grey to which we have all become accustomed. The seats are blue leather mimicking Ryanair, again nothing really to write home about. 32 rows of 3 seats each side of the aircraft makes up the passenger compliment of 192 passengers with 28 inches clearance for leg room for each passenger. Swing down television sets are placed strategically every four-five rows to allow all passengers to have visual contact with a screen. Audio availability is by headset which is supplied at a fee of £6.50 by the cabin crew. They do tell you not to use your own headset as it could damage the aircrafts entertainment system. However I have always used my own as I am not prepared to collect headsets every time I get on an aircraft and I have not blown one up yet.
We left the gate on time and trundled to the preparation area ready for take off where there was a sudden female scream, followed immediately by shouting “stop, stop, stop”. Initially, wrongly assuming the lady was having a panic attack it soon transpired her husband was having an epileptic fit. After the paramedics had arrived to deal with the incident the whole family of husband, wife, and two very upset children were removed from the aircraft together with their luggage and their holiday clearly over before it had begun. Throughout this time the Captain who was English, kept the passengers informed, constantly updating us on developments. After a delay of an hour and twenty minutes for which the airline can not be blamed, we took off.
It wasn’t long before the Captain alternating with his Flight officer were once again updating flight progress and pointing out landmarks of interest that could be observed from the windows, an exercise that was kept up throughout the flight. I was quite impressed and for that the Captain should be rightly congratulated. The cabin staff were attentive, courteous and pleasant to talk to.
In-flight entertainment was quite monotonous with re-runs of “The Simpson’s”, and a plethora of various advertisements. There was no film shown. A Eurocypria in-flight magazine was available but I found it boring and one of those things you skim through very quickly.
The tedious exercises of serving the food, the tea and coffee, followed by duty free and alcohol were no different to any other flight and this brings me onto the more detailed examination of the offering for lunch. I was presented with what appeared to be Pasta shells with Mince. (Vegetarian meals were available) I assumed it was meant to be some sort of Bolognese, only they appeared to have forgotten to add the sauce. This was accompanied by a roll (Choice of brown or white) a sachet of a butter resembling matter, and another sachet containing jam. There was also an apple Danish cake. The Pasta can only be described as disgusting, sticky, bland tasting and smelling of mild antiseptic. I am sure this pasta would not have been a victim of loss of cabin pressure and flown out the window. The butter resembling matter looked like lard and tasted as such. The apple cake however was delicious and I ate the wife’s too.
After three hours and twenty minutes my backside was aching with the long flight, and the bodily restriction, not unusual for me on charter airline seats. Technically the flight itself was uneventful and the take off and landing were textbook.
CONCLUSION
As a charter airline there is nothing special about Eurocypria to make them stand out above others. On the plus side the Captains detailed informative narration was enjoyable and satisfied my natural curiosity making the flight a diverse change from the normally almost silent flight crew. The in-flight entertainment was no worse or better than many other airlines I have flown with. The cabin crew carried out their duties efficiently and courteously.
Although the food was quite obnoxious on this occasion, my expectations of charter airline nutrition have never been high as it always seems to be a little hit and miss. The meal on the return journey was a better one and I enjoyed it.
Overall a fairly good airline with whom I would not mind flying again. As a parting statement they do have the lowest flight delay rates for any other charter airline in the UK in 2006.
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Aug 16th, 2007
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
