CYPRUS Airways (CY) said yesterday that four of its flights had been affected by a 24-hour strike by Greek air traffic controllers.
CY spokesman Tassos Angelis said that under the terms of the strike, the airline was allowed one arrival and one departure during the 24-hour period.
He said the airline had therefore combined the 7am and 9.30am flights to Athens onto a bigger plane carrying 230 passengers, which left at 9.30am yesterday. The plane returned to Cyprus with 194 passengers.
Yesterday afternoon’s two flights, the 4pm and 7pm were also combined and scheduled to leave at 2.30am this morning, half an hour after the end of the strike. Angelis said the flight to Thessalonica was also affected and was expected to leave after the strike instead of at 6pm as scheduled.
“All of our passengers were informed in advance and knew what was happening,” Angelis said.
The Greek air traffic controllers’ strike was part of a wider public service work stoppage to press for pay demands. The controllers’ union on Wednesday said it would service all emergency, military and VIP flights but other air traffic would only be serviced on the basis of one flight per destination.
Schools and hospital in Greece were also affected by the strike but public transport and banks were not.
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.
