CY pilots press demands ahead of strike threat

CYPRUS Airways (CY) pilots yesterday met management to press their demands in the hope they would not have to go ahead with a 48-hour strike planned from midnight on Thursday.

Polis Economou, the head of pilots’ union PASIPY, told the Cyprus Mail after the nearly three-hour meeting that they had handed over their positions to the board.

“We are now waiting for them to give us an answer,” he said. ‘They said maybe tomorrow.”

Responding to reports that the pilots did not appear very positive when they left the meeting at around 8.15pm, Economou said: “We were expecting an answer today, but they said they couldn’t give it, so hopefully it will be tomorrow”.

Asked if he was optimistic, he said: “We’ll see.”

The CY board continued their discussions after the pilots left.

PASIPY called for the strike last week after talks with the airline’s management on outstanding problems appeared to be going nowhere.

The 48-hour industrial action is due to start at midnight on Thursday August 25, during the peak traffic time at the island’s airports. It will affect 80 flights and 12,000 passengers.

The pilots have been horse-trading with management for months now on the contents of a rescue package for the airline.

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.