Lawyer cites economic failure due to ‘war’ against airline
AJET, formerly known as Helios Airways, announced yesterday that it would cease all airline operations in the next three months, a move which the ajet’s legal team has emphasised does not relieve the airline of any responsibilities.
In the statement, the airline assured all booked passengers that their tickets would not be affected, as all scheduled flights would take place as planned.
The announcement has prompted speculation that the decision by Libra Holidays Group to end all the flights of its subsidiary ajet is directly related to the release of the long-awaited Tsolakis investigative report into the August 2005 Helios plane crash in Grammatiko, Greece that killed all 121 passengers and crew onboard.
Although the Tsolakis report pointed primarily at pilot error as the cause of the crash, it also cited lax safety standards from Helios Airways.
Ajet’s troubles compounded when, only two days after the release of the Tsolakis report, the European Commission in an aviation safety review gave a ‘yellow card’ to ajet by placing it under heavy scrutiny and limiting its flights within the EU.
But the company’s lawyer Christos Neocleous claimed that the airline had decided to end all airline operations for purely economic reasons due to a “war” that had been waged against the company.
“The company cannot manage anymore,” Neocleous said. “Due to this war that it has endured from all sectors of Cypriot society, it cannot survive any longer to pay the costs of maintaining a flight programme, along with its obligations to its employees and co-operators.”
“It [ajet] did not have the slightest help. It was merely mocked and blackmailed, and faced the worst kind of war it could face.”
Neocleous also insisted that the ending of its flights in no way affected any of the company’s legal obligations to the relatives of the Helios crash victims that might arise on completion of any investigations in Cyprus and Greece.
The independent Helios committee, chaired by Panayiotis Kallis, is investigating the accident in parallel with a criminal investigation by the Cyprus police. On October 22 an Athens public prosecutor launched criminal proceedings.
Neocleous also noted that ajet has pending cases against third parties and so the company would remain as a registered company in the company registrar of the Cyprus Republic. “If you look at it in trade terms, it is not in the company’s interest to close completely.”
In its announcement ajet declared that all scheduled flights “will be performed as normal and passengers booked on ajet flights will not be affected”, adding that no reconfirmation of booked travel arrangements is necessary and that new reservations can still be made “since all scheduled flights will be completed”.
The ajet board will decide at a later date how to offload the two aircraft that the airline presently leases.
According to Neocleous, efforts are underway by ajet representatives so that no ajet personnel remain without work, and contacts have been made with collaborating companies to “absorb personnel that for one year now have stood beside the airline.”
“But aside from that, the staff will be compensated according to the terms of their contracts,” Neocleous added.
Communications and Works Minister Harris Thrasou told reporters yesterday that neither the Communications Ministry, nor Civil Aviation had been informed of ajet’s decision to end all flights within three months.
Thrasou said that ajet could not escape any responsibilities by terminating its flights, a view echoed in statements by Loizos Papacharalambous, the lawyer representing the victims and relatives of the Helios crash.
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