UK MPs tabled bill in parliament to allow direct flights from the UK to northern Cyprus

A bill has been introduced in the UK Parliament aiming to permit direct flights between the United Kingdom and Northern Cyprus.

The proposal, submitted as an Early Day Motion by Sammy Wilson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a conservative, pro-union party from Northern Ireland, has garnered support from other MPs, including Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, the shadow foreign secretary. The motion urges the government to authorize direct flights from the UK to Ercan International Airport in Northern Cyprus.

The motion highlights the difficulties current travel restrictions pose for over 300,000 Turkish Cypriots living in the UK and for thousands of British citizens residing in Northern Cyprus. It also asserts that Ercan Airport complies with international aviation security standards.

Allowing direct flights, the motion argues, would help ensure fairness, simplify travel for families, and bolster the UK's strategic presence in the region. DUP MP Jim Shannon has also signed the motion alongside Wilson and Rosindell.

Early Day Motions are proposals submitted for debate in the House of Commons but are rarely debated due to the lack of scheduled time.

Sammy Wilson, who tabled the bill

Currently, Ercan Airport only operates flights to and from Turkey. Until 2017, flights between the UK and Northern Cyprus were routed through Turkey, but this practice was ended by the UK government, citing security concerns following the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016.

The motion follows recent remarks by Erhan Arıklı, the TRNC’s ‘transport minister’, who proposed that Ercan be treated as a Turkish airport. He suggested that such a designation could lower airfares between the TRNC and Turkey and potentially allow Ercan to host international flights.

Arıklı told Kibris TV that, in the worst-case scenario, Ercan could be promoted as a secondary airport to Antalya or Cukurova—Turkey’s nearest international airports to Cyprus—operating under the Turkish State Airports Authority (DHMI). He likened this approach to how Northern Cyprus handles postal services, using Turkey's “Mersin 10” postcode for international mail.

However, critics like Dogus Derya, an ‘MP’ from the opposition CTP party, have raised concerns. When the proposal was first introduced in 2022, she pointed out that treating Ercan as a domestic Turkish airport might eliminate border control checks for travelers arriving from Turkey.

An alternative model, Derya noted, would be similar to the US pre-clearance system in Irish airports like Dublin and Shannon, where US border controls are conducted before departure. Applying this to Ercan would involve Turkish customs and border officials operating in Northern Cyprus—a potentially controversial move.

Furthermore, it remains uncertain whether such technical reclassification would actually lead to international airlines and airports establishing routes to and from Ercan.