from five to six abreast and resulted in narrowing the aisle to only 16 inches, was rejected by tour operators. GAC cancelled its contract with Modern Air to fly in prospective land buyers from the US Northeast and Midwest to inspect its property developments in various locations in Florida and Arizona at the end of 1973, as a result of its dwindling property business. For the airline this was a major loss of a steady source of income. The unexpected decision by the Greek government to close its airspace to all overflights from and to Turkey during the main European summer holiday season in August 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July 1974 compounded Modern Air's problems as this compelled all airlines flying between Northern Europe and Turkey to use Bulgarian airspace instead. At the time, Bulgaria's then communist government banned all aircraft whose flights had originated or were going to terminate at a West Berlin airport from its airspace. This required all airlines flying between West Berlin and Turkey to make a technical stop en route at another airport outside West Berlin to make it appear to the Bulgarian authorities that these flights did not originate/terminate in West Berlin. This in turn significantly added to operating costs, which Modern Air (and rival airlines) found difficult to pass on in a highly price-sensitive market. It therefore undermined the viability of migrant charter flights between West Berlin and Turkey, especially when operated with fuel-inefficient aircraft such as Modern's CV-990s. To recoup its sharply higher fuel costs in the Berlin market, the airline imposed a fuel surcharge on all tour operators that had contracted their flying programme from Berlin to it. The operators passed on this fuel surcharge to their IT passengers. A major disagreement over the fuel surcharge between Modern Air's management and its counterpart at Berliner Flugring, its main overseas business partner, led to a reduction in the Berlin-based fleet from five to four aircraft for the 1974 summer season. There was a plan to replace the fuel-guzzling CV-990s with more efficient, second-hand McDonnell Douglas DC-8s and DC-9s in time for the 1975 summer season. However, an attempt on Modern Air's part to pass on a further increase in its fuel surcharge to Berliner Flugring for the planned 1974/75 winter flying programme resulted in the tour operator's refusal to renew its long-standing charter contract with the airline.