Sunday, June 28/2020

And in the list of daily changes are the flights out of Ercan Airport (Nicosia, North Cyprus). Airlines, which basically means Turkish Airlines and Pegasus, have been told that they will each be limited to one flight a day in. And, obviously, one flight in means one return flight. The reason is that the TRNC has decided to require PCR tests of passengers before they board flights to North Cyprus AND after they arrive, and can see that the need for testing on arrival is going to overwhelm their test and lab facilities. The good thing from our point of view, should we decide to burn our bridges with the South and leave from Ercan, is that flights leaving are much less likely to be full. And presumably tests aren’t required to leave the country, although that would depend on requirements at the destination point - which could be subject to change. The pandemic has created as much administrative chaos in sophisticated countries as in the tiny outliers, and as many decisions made in response to ego, personal profit and confusion.