CYPRUS Airways (CY) pilots charged yesterday that the airline’s management has failed to put the ailing carrier on the right track and demanded action to find a strategic investor who should be given a majority share.
The pilots, members of the PASYPI union, said despite any actions, the company remained on a downward course with increasing losses.
“While passenger movement to and from Cyprus recorded a 10 per cent increase in 2011, Cyprus Airways saw a drop of 15 per cent,” PASYPI said in a memo submitted to the finance ministry. “The failure of the current management to tackle the market challenges amid an economic recession is obvious.”
To drive their point home, pilots yesterday held a demo outside the airline HQ in Nicosia demanding from the state, which is the majority shareholder, to find a strategic investor who can put the carrier on the right track.
The government currently owns 69.57 per cent of the company, while the remaining 30.43 per cent is owned by private investors.
In October last year it emerged that some sort of talks were taking place with potential investors but nothing else has been heard on the matter since.
PASYPI chairman Charalambos Tappas said the pilots demanded transparent, official procedures and not behind-closed-doors procedures.
“And we say to attract the proper investor to promote … the company’s best interest, it should be a majority package or else they are half-measures,” Tappas told the Cyprus Mail. “This is the only way to keep the company alive, unfortunately.”
The government last year gave CY a €20-million cash injection earmarked as compensation for damages incurred due to the Turkish ban on the airline using its airspace.
It followed agreement with staff on a rescue plan whose main provisions involved measures by the company to save €30 million and the workers contributing another €12 million – €7 million through pay cuts and the rest through shedding 140 jobs from a total of around 1,200.
Pilots say despite their best efforts and assistance provided to the management, the company is still in the red, risking ending up like state charter airline Eurocypria.
Eurocypria went bust late in 2010 – leaving around 300 people jobless – despite receiving €35 million from the state earlier in the year.
In response to yesterday’s protest, the airline said the financial situation was not only the pilots’ concern.
CY said the current period is critical, with the influx of low-cost airlines making things even more difficult.
The company conceded it was absolutely necessary to improve its competitiveness, noting that unproductive confrontations did not serve CY’s best interests.
“No one is beyond criticism but general, vague and unsubstantiated charges leave those who make them exposed,” CY said.
