Meeting between management and board yesterday is inconclusive, more talks today
THE FUTURE of Cyprus Airways was still uncertain last night following an inconclusive meeting on a make-or-break reconstruction plan between union leaders, the airline’s Board of Directors and government ministers.
Airline spokesman Tassos Angelis said another meeting is scheduled to take place this afternoon, when the unions will submit their positions in more detail. “We very much hope that there will be a positive agreement,” he said.
The unions said they couldn’t accept the plan as it was, with CY management apparently indicating they were willing to listen.
Secretary of pilots’ union PASIPY, Adamos Sourkounis, was last night in a hopeful mood, saying: “We hope that some of our suggestions will be accepted by the company. Our first impression of yesterday’s meeting is positive. We hope that all unions will today come to the table with more specific suggestions on how to save money. I would definitely say that things look better after yesterday’s meeting, though. But either way, things are bad and we know that the company is not doing well.”
The debt-ridden state carrier said that it could not afford to pay its November wage bill and it would close down unless it could secure a £58 million loan from the European Union.
The airline then submitted a restructuring plan to Brussels, which if approved would allow CY to borrow the needed £58 million with which it hopes it could make the airline a viable enterprise. If the plan stands as submitted it would mean axing a fifth of the jobs, and cutting the salaries of pilots and other staff. The projected savings would amount to £225 million, which would cover the average annual losses.
But unions threatened that they would not accept the submitted plan and are asking for changes to the plan so that the burden does not fall disproportionately, as they see it, on the workers.
Yesterday afternoon’s meeting, at the Holiday Inn in Nicosia, was an effort to amend the restructuring plan submitted to Brussels so it was acceptable to all parties. Around 50 people participated in the meeting, including members of the Cyprus Airways Board of Directors, five unions, and three Ministers—Trade, Communications, and Labour—as well as the General Director of the Finance Ministry.
Communications Minister Harris Thrasou said that he planned to listen very closely to the union requests and that the changes would be adopted if they were “realistic”.
CY Chairman Lazarus Savvides met with the President on Monday at the Presidential Palace to inform him on and discuss the airline’s situation, stating after the meeting that the President did not give him any orders.
Savvides said that the fact that several Ministers participated in yesterday’s meeting demonstrated that the government was interested in putting into motion the plan that had been submitted to the European Union.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said before the meeting that “time constraints are narrow, and time is pressing”, adding that the recommendations need to be delivered to the European Union “as soon as possible to avoid greater destruction to Cyprus Airways”.
AKEL head Demetris Christofias said that the main issues to be confronted were establishing “where the basic burden falls and whether the changes can truly help the company survive”.
Christofias noted that “it was the workers who shouldered the burden of last year’s changes without any results”, adding that the workers are again being asked to bear the costs.
The Association of Cyprus Travel Agents issued a statement yesterday urging measures to be taken to ensure that Cyprus Airways remains active and independent, adding that if the company shut down or was sold off, it would be “catastrophic not only for the tourism industry but for the Cyprus economy”.
Additional reporting by Leo Leonidou
