EUROCYPRIA chairman Lazaros Savvides yesterday sought to assure the airline’s pilots that a deal to lease two planes to a Canadian company during winter would not affect their jobs.
The pilots staged a strike on Sunday to protest against the agreement that Eurocypria says it needs to stay afloat. Four flights to the UK were affected by the strike.
Problems in the company were further compounded yesterday by the publication of an internal letter to staff warning that if the Canadian deal did not go ahead, Eurocypria might not survive past next February.
The letter was sent to staff by Eurocypria general manager George Souroullas.
“We said we have to be careful of our operation in the winter or we might have cash flow problems by February,” Savvides said yesterday in response to the reports.
“We have a difference of opinion with the pilots’ union on this.”
Savvides said the agreement with the Canadian company was a first of a kind because instead of using pilots from the leasing company, the Canadian firm was to use its own pilots.
“Our pilots are worried in case we extend two aircraft and permanent staff are affected, but this is out of the question,” said Savvides.
“The number of pilots we have is exactly the number we need and they shouldn’t worry.”
He said every year the company consulted with the pilots about the leasing of aircraft for the winter period. This time they didn’t. So they did what they did,” Savvides said, referring to Sunday’s strike.
He said a meeting was scheduled with the pilots before October 24 and it was hoped the situation could be resolved. No more strikes were on the cards in the meantime, he said.
Eurocypria has been experiencing a number of difficulties since the government purchased the airline from national carrier Cyprus Airways last year. The airline was recently forced to lease planes after being grounded by Civil Aviation for not having enough staff to operate under international regulations.
The current financial problems and the need for the deal with the Canadian company are said to be the result of the earlier mistake.
Soroullas’ internal memo on October 8, which said the company’s financial situation was “not good”, stressed the importance of the Canadian deal to the point where it hints the agreement might be the last chance for the airline to survive.
“This agreement offers financial benefits that are of vital importance to the company because it will utilise two planes during the winter period, and without this, and without any exaggeration, the company might not survive past February,” the memo said.
It said any more strike action would therefore put the company over the edge, given that it already had enough problems after having to lease an aircraft itself in June. This, coupled with the price of fuel and intense competition and a recent upsurge in damage to aircraft from birds around Laranca airport, had put the airline under a lot of financial pressure.
