21,000 to fly in to vote – pilots permitting

By a Staff Reporter

SOME 21,000 Cypriots living abroad will be flying back to the island to vote in Sunday’s elections. That is, unless the national air carrier stages a strike.

Further measures by pilots’ union PASYPI could cut right through the parties’ election plans. The union are in dispute over management scale pilots flying training flights and have already gone on strike twice. The second time, the government bypassed the strike by calling in other carriers to take on Cyprus Airways’ commitments.

CY general manager Harris Loizides yesterday played down concerns that the airline dispute might jeopardise the smooth arrival of Cypriots during election time. “I think that all these rumours are unfounded… I believe that common sense will prevail.

“It would be irrational for PASYPI to jeopardise the arrival of thousands of voters,” he noted.

CY’s general manager added that the airline had an open mind and was waiting for the Ministry of Labour to present its mediation proposal.

Loizides made the comments after meeting with President Glafcos Clerides. He said that around 15,000 Cypriots would be travelling to the island with CY, the rest with other carriers.

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.