CY pilots: Eurocypria trying to steal our business

CYPRUS Airways pilots have accused Eurocypria airlines of trying to steal their business by launching flights to the same destinations.

A statement issued by the pilots union (PALPU) said Eurocypria has launched chartered flights to Rome and Venice as well as weekly routes to Moscow and Franfurt making its intentions clear “to compete in Cyprus Airways routes.”

“Assurances that Eurocypria would be limited to non-competitive routes have once more proven to be empty words and moves to mislead, “PALPU said.

The union said Eurcypria’s potential to remain afloat without affecting Cyprus Airways is zero – “something we pointed out months ago.”

“As Cyprus Airways workers we are worried about our future and at the same time we are sending a clear message to our Eurocypria colleagues that there future is also grim,” the union said.

For months, both CY management and unions have made insistent calls that Eurocypria – which was sold to the government by a cash-starved CY in 2006 – should either be closed down or merged back into CY, but without anyone losing their job.

Cash-strapped Eurocypria was given a €35 million government bailout in February, needed to repay some €28 million in loans.

The sum vouchsafed to Eurocypria was not given in the form of a direct state subsidy but it was provided to the company by means of the indirect mechanism of increasing the number of shares and then buying them.

Whilst direct state subsidisation of an airline is against EU competition laws, indirect mechanisms of financing are not.

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