TWO PILOTS made redundant from Cyprus Airways (CY) under the airline’s strategic plan were offered – and were considering taking – jobs with Turkish Cyprus Airlines.
According to sources in the company, the two have now changed their minds and are seeking to return to the national carrier.
The two pilots were among a number of captains who agreed to take redundancy under a deal with the airline.
It was only at the beginning of last month that pilots union PASIPY reached a final agreement on the benefits package following months of hard negotiations.
The sources said the two have now switched unions and gone over to the airline’s biggest union CYNIKA in attempt to be rehired at the flagging national carrier.
“I hope the new administration and the board will stick to their decision and not let them because that will have the domino effect where everyone will want to go back,” said the source.
“This these are people who were going to work in the occupied area. They were telling everyone in clubs and pubs and hotels and in the cockpit. These are not rumours. They were the ones saying they were offered jobs. Now they realise there is no better place to work than Cyprus Airways.”
A second source confirmed the claim that at least one of the two pilots said he was going to live in the north because they had been offered a good package from Turkish Cypriot Airlines. “He was actually about to accept when he asked the union to try and get him his job back at Cyprus Airways,” said the second source.
Andreas Pierides, the head of CYNIKA admitted that some pilots had come under their umbrella but he did not want to comment on whether his union was working to have them reinstated in the airline.
“That’s not 100 per cent true,” Pierides said. He added that the comments about the two pilots considering a job in the north were also not true.
Meanwhile pilots union PASIPY announced yesterday that they were organising a demonstration next Wednesday outside the International Conference Centre in Nicosia to protest at the shareholders’ AGM against what they call the ongoing unsolved issues.
“The problems are still there,” said PASIPY spokesman Tassos Christofides. “It’s been two years since the pay cuts and the same problems.”
Christofides said the company had promised to come and give them answer. “Now it’s October and nothing,” he added.
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