More woes from Cyprus Post. Now 54 countries affected.

[PhotoLady]

Mail arriving from or being sent to 54 countries will be delayed over the Christmas period due to the inability to find air carriers during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Cyprus Post announced on Monday.

The affected countries are: Egypt, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, France, Germany, Georgia, Denmark, Switzerland, Greece, Estonia, USA, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Japan, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq, Ireland , Israel, Italy, Canada, Kenya, China, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Morocco, Great Britain, Bahrain, Norway, South Africa, Netherlands, Oman, Ukraine, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Czechia, Philippines, Tanzania, Finland and Hong Kong.

“We remind our customers that the delivery of mail is not being carried out under normal conditions. Therefore, the transport, handling and delivery of items to these countries is delayed,” the announcement said.

The Cyprus Post also added that efforts are being made to serve other destinations, which will be announced when normal service resumes.

However, the Quickpost international courier service for urgent shipments of items, is still active for almost all countries of the world.

[PhotoLady]

It was only 22 countries which were affected on 24 November.
This is a huge difference!

The issue isn't so much the fact that mail is late but the fact there is no way to get it out of Cyprus, let alone the incoming Christmas mail.

We've been waiting for an order being sent to UK since 19 November. We were informed 12 days or so ago that it hadn't been sent due to "difficulties".
UK wasn't a country which was previously listed as being a destination which was affected.

It's going to take ages to sort this lot out...

We're certainly not waiting for cards and nice wishes. This is business.

[bromerzz]

I sent a recorded delivery through the Cyprus Post Office to the UK Passport office 0n 8 Dec and it arrived and was signed for on 14 Dec, cost a miserly €2.90. The few Xmas cards I wanted to send, I sent in the first couple of days of December have all arrived in UK.
No sign of 2 x Amazon.DE deliveries from German suppliers since 12 November and a Royal Mail recorded delivery from the UK posted on 27 Nov not yet here.
Life goes on.

[Uncle D]

So xmas cards will arrive in June, three months later than usual

[Kili01]

It seems as if problems with the mail must have started after the demise of Cyprus Airways, as now there is no reliable carrier of mail to and from Cyprus. So since then any mail for Cyprus is always dependent on flights with a foreign airline.

Dee

[The Aquila]

It seems as if problems with the mail must have started after the demise of Cyprus Airways, as now there is no reliable carrier of mail to and from Cyprus. So since then any mail for Cyprus is always dependent on flights with a foreign airline.

Dee

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed that the flight schedule from the UK and many other destinations have been drastically reduced by a global pandemic?!

Nothing to do with Cyprus Airways at all. Do you really think that if they were still around they would keep to their regular flight schedules so the Christmas cards would get here on time?

[Kili01]

No Aquilla, I am well aware that there are very few flights by foreign airlines to either Cyprus Airport due to the pandemic. I made the comment as I was here for years when mail deliveries, even at Christmas didn't have the problems that they have had since the demise of Cyprus Airways, which used to have a regular flight to LHR. The situation is worse this year, but for the last few years there have been problems with the delivery of Christmas mail. Incidentally, the International Mail Centre is situated at LHR.

Dee

[PhotoLady]

It seems as if problems with the mail must have started after the demise of Cyprus Airways, as now there is no reliable carrier of mail to and from Cyprus. So since then any mail for Cyprus is always dependent on flights with a foreign airline.

Dee

Yes, Cyprus Post no longer has a dedicated carrier for airmail and mail now goes via all kinds of routes in and out of the Republic of Cyprus and has done for a number of years now. Hence why this year has exacerbated the problem, certainly it's not going to be helped by the Christmas period.

I cannot see our package arriving in time for us to get our stock on the website in time for the year end.

Yesterday, we received one half of an order from the north of Cyprus - the mail boat used to take post from Lefkosa to Mersin on the Turkish mainland broke down and had to be repaired. From there, post makes its' way to Istanbul before eventually being sent to the destination and as a rule, reaches us in just over 2 weeks. This package was also due to be sent on 19 November.
The most important stock is in the 2nd package, of course! Sod's Law and all that

[jeba]

Yesterday I received a registered letter from Germany which was sent 2 months and 3 days ago. At least they should offer faster - even though more expensive- options. There is a DHL aeroplane flying in everyday - why can’t they reserve some space for priority mail in that plane? Currently you´re only left with a choice between paying € 70 for courier service or waiting forever. Surely there must be something in between they could offer.

[WHL]

Yesterday I received a registered letter from Germany which was sent 2 months and 3 days ago. At least they should offer faster - even though more expensive- options. There is a DHL aeroplane flying in everyday - why can’t they reserve some space for priority mail in that plane? Currently you´re only left with a choice between paying € 70 for courier service or waiting forever. Surely there must be something in between they could offer.

Why would DHL want to let other competitors use their airplanes, what gain would DHL have letting their rivals bring in post as fast as them,?

[bromerzz]

Amazon DE order fulfilled by a German shop which was shipped on 12 Nov arrived today.That was using the standard delivery not a courier service.

[jeba]

Yesterday I received a registered letter from Germany which was sent 2 months and 3 days ago. At least they should offer faster - even though more expensive- options. There is a DHL aeroplane flying in everyday - why can’t they reserve some space for priority mail in that plane? Currently you´re only left with a choice between paying € 70 for courier service or waiting forever. Surely there must be something in between they could offer.

Why would DHL want to let other competitors use their airplanes, what gain would DHL have letting their rivals bring in post as fast as them,?

DHL isn't a competitor of Deutsche Post. They're sister companies.

[jeba]

Actually, it's a known fact that many couriers 'share' the TNT plane which comes in to Larnaca each day, the couriers work together to everyone's mutual benefit.

Jeba, you don't have to pay €70 for a courier service on a small package. As has been posted on here many times, go to the Post Office and use Datapost. Fast as anything and relatively cheap. When I've used Datapost to post stuff to the UK it invariably arrives the next day, or the day after at worst. Brilliant service!

Unfortunately, they don't ship from Germany.