HUNDREDS of passengers were stranded at Larnaca airport yesterday when the traffic control centre was left with no personnel to issue flight plans for departing flights.
The disruption, which was initially erroneously attributed to a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers, lasted four hours, from 3pm to 7pm.
Because no Assistant Officers were on duty at Tower Control – their job is to issue flight plans for departing flights – departures were suspended during this time. They resumed after 7pm.
Air traffic controllers continued to direct incoming flights.
In addition to the departures directly affected (CY406 to Sofia, CY336 and CY348 to Athens, CY426 to Thessaloniki, CY326 to London), six to seven arrivals were delayed.
Normally, the shift at Tower Control has two Assistant Officers and four controllers. Yesterday, however, one of the Assistant Officers on duty fell ill and went home around noon.
A second Assistant Officer should have taken over, but apparently he or she had been taken ill as well. Apparently no one else could be reached to fill in.
Media reports, however, suggested that because Assistant Officers apparently had been instructed by their union PASYDY not to work overtime – or because they believed this to be the case – the second Assistant Officer refused to work since he or she was designated for overtime work for the day.
The disruption lasted until 7pm, when the next shift of Assistant Officers clocked in, allowing departures to resume.
Meanwhile passengers trapped at the departures lounge of Larnaca airport were left wondering what had happened.
“This is totally unacceptable. We’ve been waiting here for hours, no one is telling is what’s going on,” said one frustrated woman.
There was a fair amount of confusion initially, as Cyprus Airways issued an announcement speaking of an “unannounced strike” by air traffic controllers.
Hermes Airports also said the perceived industrial action was “disrespectful toward the travelling public.”
Later in the day, the air traffic controllers’ union PASEEK released an indignant statement expressing “grief” that the disruption was immediately blamed on them without checking the facts. ATCs continued to work throughout the four-hour period, the union said.
The disruption happened just as Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzos was meeting with the PASYDY union to find common ground on a pay dispute with controllers.
PASEEK, the air traffic controllers that belongs to PASYDY, had announced four-hour strikes starting at 1pm next Wednesday and on January 25.
The strikes would affect all air traffic to and from Larnaca and Paphos airports except emergencies, VIP, state, and military flights.
Controllers want to be exempted from a raft of austerity measures passed in December in a bid to save the ailing economy. They say their income comes from the airlines using the island’s airspace and does not affect the state budget.
They oppose a series of measures imposed on all state and broader state sector workers; a two-year staggered contribution, a permanent contribution towards their pension and a two-year freeze in salaries – including pay scale rises and CoLA.
The government is seeking to secure agreement on a minimum limit of service to secure the operation of the air traffic control centre, provided for by a 2004 agreement aiming at resolving disputes in essential services.
A dispute at an essential service must first go to mediation, and only if that fails can a strike be called.
Flourentzos said some progress had been achieved yesterday, after a proposal put forward by PASYDY that the Joint Personnel Committee of the Public Service should serve as the mediation forum.
Calling this a “positive development,” Flourentzos said he hoped that controllers who are not members of PASYDY would likewise go along with this proposal and not act independently.
Asked whether any industrial action would be suspended until overtime issues are discussed at the Joint Personnel Committee, Flourentzos said:
“What I have understood is that they will continue to provide their services normally, without any measures.”
For his part, PASYDY boss Glafcos Hadjipetrou said the union is appealing to all its members “to help, so that the two airports operate normally. On our part, there is a desire to find solutions.”
Hadjipetrou spoke of a ‘mix-up’ in general regarding arrangements for overtime pay, noting that the current system needs to be streamlined to coincide with pay grades.
One of the delegates representing Air Traffic Personnel walked out of the meeting expressing disagreement with PASYDY’s positions.
