NATIONAL carrier Cyprus Airways (CY) is to replace its last three foreign pilots with Cypriots by the end of the tear, the company said yesterday.
According to CY spokesman Tassos Angeli, due to a lack of qualified aviators, the airliner had had to hire three foreign nationals on a temporary basis. The reason cited was that this scheme would save some £120,000 – the cost of training Cypriot pilots from scratch. But in November, the foreign pilots are to be replaced by locals, who will be trained directly on flying Boeing 737s. This means that by late this year all 160 of the airliner’s aviators will be Cypriot nationals.
Earlier this week CY CEO Haris Loizides stressed that the hiring of foreign pilots was nothing more than a practical measure for a temporary time period. His comments came in the face of strong criticism by the Pancyprian Confederation of Pilots. They say that, while CY is hiring foreigners, 40 of their members are on the waiting list. The confederation also complained that employment criteria were overly harsh.
CY was not undermining Cypriot pilots, far from it, Angeli told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
On the flipside, though, the quota of foreigners versus locals was still considerably lower than in most European airlines. The acquis communautaire dictates equal employment opportunities for all EU citizens, and Cyprus looks set to join the bloc early next year.
Angeli confirmed yesterday that regime would also apply to CY. Once the island joined the EU, pilots would be hired strictly on the basis of merit.
This was the first time CY has hired foreign nationals as pilots.
In another development, the carrier announced yesterday that IATA (International Air Transport Association) rated CY as the top value-for-money European airline for Business Class.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
