THE TURKISH Cypriot authorities have agreed to start negotiations with private Turkish carrier Atlas Jet over its bid to take over the running of Cyprus Turkish Airlines (KTHY).
The announcement came despite mounting protests that culminated on Wednesday in the bizarre theft of Atlas Air’s written partnership proposal from the KTHY offices in the north of Nicosia.
With debts of over $100 million the ‘semi-state’ KTHY recently sought to stave off bankruptcy by offering a partnership tender to private companies wishing to buy a stake.
By the end of the tendering period on Tuesday evening only Atlas’ bid had been received.
Workers at KTHY vehemently oppose the deal with Atlas, and have criticised the tenders process, saying it hadall been pre-agreed.
Head of Hava-Sen, the union that represents airline workers, Buran Atakan said the handling of the tender process was “unprecedented anywhere in the world”.
“A tender is opened on June 4, and then on June 5 a document appears saying that an agreement had been reached between KTHY and Atlas on May 22,” he added.
“If the Atlas Jet bid is accepted, that will be the end of our national airline,” Democrat Party (DP) leader Serdar Denktash told reporters. He has added his voice to those of protesters KTHY who say most staff at the ailing airline will be sacked if the Atlas’ proposed merger goes ahead. Denktash on Monday submitted an appeal to the court in an attempt to have the bid outlawed on the grounds that forming a merger was against KTHYs own bylaws. The bid was rejected, with Denktash saying he would continue to fight.
On Wednesday when it emerged that the envelope containing the bid had been stolen, five employees of the airline were arrested.
Earlier in the week, however, a copy of the contract document outlining Atlas’ proposed partnership deal had been leaked to the press. According to reports, the deal would entail laying off of all 670 staff with the exception of pilot ands cabin crews. All administrative running of the two airlines would be taken over by Atlas’ existing staff. The $100 million debt would however not be taken over by Atlas. This would be passed on to the Turkish Cypriot authorities.
The proposal also promised to generate at least $1 million profit per year, and to provide funds to pay staff until the airline was in the black. Currently KTHY is believed to be losing around $3.5 million per month, and staff have not been paid since March.
Cyprus Turkish Airlines currently has just four planes in service, all of which will be taken over and run by Atlas Jet’s management. Atlas itself already has 15 planes, a mixture of Boeings and Airbuses, flying to destinations in Turkey, the Middle East and a small number of destinations in Europe.
