Cyprus refused to grant more time to rescue airline

Cyprus turned down appeals from the country's ailing airline Cobalt for more time to find investors as it withdrew the carrier's operating licence, officials said Friday.

"We wanted more time, but our licence was revoked," Cobalt's chairman Grigoris Diakos told state radio, a day after the carrier's sudden collapse.

"We asked for a suspension (of the licence), we needed two months to find a strategic investor after the Chinese investor pulled out," he added.

Diakos said there were "one or two serious proposals" from potential investors.

But the Cyprus Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) decided to revoke the licence, senior transport ministry official Alecos Michaelides said.

A temporary suspension was ruled out because there was no sign of a solid rescue plan.

"A company that is constantly posting losses, and especially losses of around 30 million (euros, or USD 34 million) a year over a three-year period, cannot survive," Michaelides told ANT1 television.

He said the strategic Chinese investors were estimated to have ploughed in USD 114 million, but losses had continued unabated.

Although the airline's licence has been revoked, it can reapply to resume operations once it finds the necessary financing, the government said, although it could also face legal action.

Cobalt Air ceased all operations at Wednesday midnight and entered an administration process, after only two years and three months of operations.

Transport Minister Vassiliki Anastassiadou has said USD 2.3 million have allocated for the repatriation of thousands of passengers left stranded by Cobalt's collapse.

Cyprus said it will pay to ensure hundreds of Cobalt passengers stranded on the holiday island can return home safely.

Cobalt was launched in 2016, filling the void to become the Mediterranean island's biggest airline after state-owned Cyprus Airways went bankrupt in January 2015.

It operated 13-15 flights daily, carrying up to 3,000 passengers to 23 destinations including Athens, Beirut, Heathrow, Paris and Tel Aviv. It had plans to launch flights to China.

Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, its website was replaced with a single-page statement announcing the cancellation of all flights within two and a half hours.

Cypriot MP George Prokopiou said 18,000 travellers had been affected by the airline's closure.

Cobalt ceased operations after failing to reach a deal with a potential strategic investor to help it pay for leasing its six aircraft -- two Airbus 319s and four Airbus 320s.

The airline's largest shareholder was AJ Cyprus, with 49 percent of the shares. AJ Cyprus is owned by China's AVIC Joy Air.