By Jean Christou
A CONTINGENCY plan by Cyprus Airways to minimise delays during yesterday’s strike by pliots collapsed after a second union came out in sympathy.
Some 30 members of the airline’s biggest staff union Cynika went back on a promise to fly, and instead called in sick in a show of support for the 100 Pasipy pilots on strike over promotions.
Last night Pasipy served notice that it would escalate the dispute and strike for 48 hours, beginning at one minute past midnight tonight. The union called on everyone involved to work towards resolving the problem (of promotions) once and for all.
Yesterday’s U-turn by the Cynika pilots scuppered the airline’s carefully laid plans which had already rescheduled the day’s 3,000 passengers from the 11 affected flights with a minimum of delays.
Cyprus Airways chairman Takis Kyriakides yesterday condemned the 24-hour strike, calling it “unacceptable” and “unjustified”.
He estimated the financial cost at more than £100,000, but said the damage to the “company’s reputation was incalculable”.
Faced with new flight chaos, CY had to lease four aircraft from abroad, including a Boeing 747, airline spokesman Tassos Angelis said. The 747 left for London at around 4pm with 400 passengers on board, he added.
Additional leasing charges are likely to have pushed the initial estimated cost of the strike from about £100,000 to at least £500,000, but Angelis would not put a figure on the financial damage.
“We had to cancel all the arrangements we had made but by the end of today (Tuesday) every one of the 3,000 passengers affected will get to his destination in and out of Cyprus,” Angelis said.
Three London and three Athens flights were affected, as were flights to Rome, Beirut and Amman. A flight to Paris was cancelled and its passengers were flown to London to board aircraft for France from there.
The Amsterdam flight was operated by CY’s chief pilot and another management pilot who do not belong to any union, but passengers were still being flown out late last night. Many had endured delays of up to 12 hours.
Angelis said everyone would reach their destination despite Pasipy’s attempts to leave them stranded. “We took good care of them,” Angelis said. He said some were taken to hotels and others to restaurants depending on the length of the delay.
Angelis said the reason the Cynika pilots backed off from flying was because they had received a leaflet from Pasipy calling on them to think again.
The Pasipy leaflet threatened to report their non-striking colleagues to the International Pilots’ Union, and also said that the members of their union would refuse to fly with the Cynika pilots in the future, he said.
A source at Cynika, which represents the majority of CY’s 2,000 workers, said their union had no instructions to strike and that if pilots had not gone to work, it was for “personal reasons”.
Angelis described the pilots’ tactics as “guerrilla warfare… hijacking passengers to use them to blackmail the company”.
“They have degraded trade unionism and their own profession,” he said. Pasipy members talk about CY nearing its expiry date, Angelis said, “but I would say pilots themselves are writing down the expiry date of the company and they want it to be as soon as possible”.
Pasipy defended its position at a news conference earlier when
spokesman George Charalambous denied persistent and critical reports that they were the best paid people in Cyprus. He said company directors were paid more, and with more benefits.
The pilots, unlike the other unions, had withdrawn all pay claims and the only issue they were concerned about was promotions, he said.
The union says CY provoked the strike by reneging on a deal to freeze vacancies in the airline’s charter arm Eurocypria until agreement was reached between all three pilots’ factions — Pasipy, Cynika and Eurocypria- Sek — on how they should be filled.
Last Friday, in line with a previous agreement with Eurocypria pilots to give them the jobs, CY advertised the three vacancies and was immediately informed of strike action by Pasipy. The union wants all pilot promotions to come under a joint agreement on common seniority between the two airlines.
It says Eurocypria pilots with only 4-5 years’ experience as co-
pilot should not be promoted to captain when there are co-pilots at CY with 11-12 years’ experience.
