STATE-owned Eurocypria yesterday dismissed reports that Civil Aviation had threatened to suspend or withdraw its licence due to problems within the airline.
The charter company’s chairman Lazaros Savvides said he was challenging the whole truth of the report, which said that at a meeting on Wednesday with Civil Aviation, Eurocypria was given an ultimatum to solve the problems or lose its licence.
“There was a meeting requested by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry with the Civil Aviation in the context of going through a report the Civil Aviation prepared for the company,” Savvides said.
“Some of the points were serious and some were routine but there is no reason for worrying as far as Eurocypria was concerned.”
He said there were satisfactory replies to the points raised, but the company had not had a chance to submit them previously, Savvides said.
“Just because certain points were raised, it does not mean there are not satisfactory replies to them,” he added.
He denied there had been an ultimatum as far as Eurocypria’s licence was concerned.
“There was no such warning,” said Savvides. “It was an audit of the airline. Some issues were important and some were not important.”
He declined to say what the Civil Aviation had expressed concern over, saying it was confidential, and was nothing the airline could not handle.
Eurocypria has been experiencing a number of difficulties since the government purchased the airline from national carrier Cyprus Airways in 2006. The airline was forced last June to lease different planes from outside after being grounded by Civil Aviation for not having enough staff to operate under international regulations.
A leasing deal with a Canadian company to solve the problem later led to strike action by pilots due to the earlier lack of foresight in securing enough staff at Eurocypria. The blunder cost the airline hundreds of thousands in leasing costs.
The internal memo in October last year tod staff the company’s financial situation was “not good”, and stressed the importance of the Canadian deal to the point where it hinted the agreement might be the last chance for the airline to survive.
