By Jean Christou
EUROCYPRIA pilots have sent a strongly worded letter to Cyprus Airways Chairman Takis Kyriakides, warning him to keep his pilots’ union Pasipy out of the charter firm’s business.
“We feel very disappointed,” said union representative Constantinos Pitsillides yesterday. “We made an agreement with him and he is not honouring it. We feel disgusted that Pasipy is indirectly running our company.”
One Eurocypria pilot has already handed in his resignation and has found another flying job in the Middle East. Sources in the profitable charter firm said he was fed up with the situation.
Cyprus Airways has promised to fill two captain vacancies from the Eurocypria ranks under an agreement made last year with the charter firm’s pilots.
However management is stalling because the powerful CY pilots’ union Pasipy wants the vacancies for its own members under a policy of ‘common seniority’. All 10 of Eurocypria’s captains are Pasipy members. The charter firm has 34 pilots in all and the remainder have become disillusioned with continued stalling on the agreement CY says it intends to honour but which 12 months later it has not.
The Eurocypria pilots are convinced it is because the national carrier fears industrial action by 120-strong Pasipy at the height of the holiday season which would spell disaster.
Meetings to discuss the issue this week came to nothing, and Eurocypria pilots, who fly more for less pay, have sent the letter to Kyriakides in the hopes of shaking him up.
The letter is signed on behalf of all Eurocypria personnel.
“It’s a reflection of our disappointment with the way the chairman has handled the whole thing, and a warning that we hold some people responsible, ” Pitsillides said. “It asks the crucial question: who runs the company, Pasipy or you?”
The letter also demands the immediate filling of the vacancies for captain.
Pitsillides said they believe management will attempt to “get around” the problem like they have done in the past, by hiring a contract pilot to see Eurocypria through the summer.
He estimated this could cost the company around £10,000 a month. Eurocypria pilots say they will resist such a move, and while not advocating strike measures they have still not ruled them out.
“They may have to cancel flights which is something we don’t like, but we’ve had it up to here with this,” Pitsillides said yesterday.
