Unions adopt a wait-and-see approach to CY plan

CYPRUS Airways (CY) unions said yesterday they would wait to see a new strategic plan drawn up to help pull the ailing national carrier out of the red, and which may involve redundancies, before making any comment.

Both the pilots union PALPU and the cabin crew union CYNIKA, the airline’s biggest, said they would be handed copies of the plan at a meeting later today.

“We are waiting for them to give us the actual plan,” said CYNIKA’s Costas Demetriou.

Demetriou conceded that the airline was in dire financial straits but said that he did not know yet if it was necessary to target staff levels to combat the problem. “We shall see how the changes they want to make will affect staff levels,” he said.

“We prefer to wait until after we receive the plan before we comment,” a PALPU spokesman told the Cyprus Mail.

CY chairman Constantinos Loizides on Monday presented the strategic plan to the government. The plan, put together with the help of foreign consultants, is designed to help the airline return to the black by 2006.

It includes possible redundancies, an overhaul of flight schedules and selling off or leasing at least two of the group’s 19 aircraft.

A reduction in the fleet would have a knock-on effect on personnel levels. The airline now has a highly unionised staff of around 2,000.

Communications and Works Minister Haris Thrasou yesterday called on all sides to work together to ensure the survival of the national carrier throughout discussions taking place on the plan.

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.