THE GOVERNMENT announced yesterday that it had begun a disciplinary investigation against ground handling companies Swissport and LGS in light of the chaotic situation at the island’s airports.
According to Communications Minister Nicos Nicolaides, the imposition of administrative measures against the companies responsible for the substandard service they have been providing in the month or so since taking over ground handling operations at the airports could range from financial penalties of up to €5,000 for each ‘omission’ to a termination of their contract.
Nicolaides reiterated that the government was “still not happy with the services being provided to the public” at both island’s terminals and had already begun the investigation into disciplining the companies by requesting a series of written explanations regarding a host of incidents that have plagued the airport over the last two months.
Since the transfer of the ground-handling operations from Hermes to Swissport-GAP Vassilopoulos and a second company, LGS (Louis, Gold Air and Service Air) at the end of May, services at both the Larnaca and Paphos terminals have experienced major problems, with a number of high profile blunders forcing Nicolaides to issue the two companies with an ultimatum calling on them to improve their services or the Ministry would instruct airport operator Hermes to break off their contracts.
In response, the two companies hired more than 120 new employees between them and appointed a number of expert personnel to train their staff, vowing to co-operate between themselves and Hermes to deal with the crisis.
Michalis Maratheftis, spokesman for the Louis Group, claimed yesterday that the services provided by LGS were at the appropriate level.
“Based on our own data, the standard of our service is at the same level as when we took over in May. However, this does not please us because what we are striving for, despite all the teething problems, is to provide an even better service to passengers,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
Maratheftis confirmed that they were doing their utmost to alleviate the crisis that reached breaking point at the end of last month when a group of passengers were boarded onto the wrong plane.
“We are examining the incidents detailed to us by the Ministry and we will be responding in due course. We are continuing to hire and train new members of staff while also continuing to train our existing workers, despite the short time frame we have had to work with and the outdated infrastructure of the current Larnaca and Paphos airports,” he added.
Nicolaides reiterated yesterday that the overall responsibility for the running of the airports resided with airport operator Hermes.
“The administrative measures involve the two companies and have nothing to do with us. But we cannot pretend that the services which they provide do not affect us, as they are very important in the operation of the airport,” Hermes spokesman Adamos Aspris said.
He went on to say that despite an improvement in the situation over the last week, they would continue to put pressure on the two companies.
“The truth is that in the last few days the delays due to the ground handling operations have shown a serious improvement, but this does not mean that it the issue is done and dusted. The Ministry is doing a good job in applying pressure on the two companies and we will continue to do so,” said.
At the weekend, Hermes launched a massive publicity campaign to inform the public as to who was to blame for the recent chaos suffered by passengers at the island’s two airports. The full-on campaign involves newspaper and radio adverts.
