Chairman of ‘undermined’ Eurocypria announces resignation

EUROCYPRIA HEAD Eleftherios Ioannou yesterday announced his resignation from the state-owned airline, giving as reason the “actions and oversights” of the government which are leading the company to closure.

The airline chief’s resignation follows on the heels of the resignation of Kikis Lazarides, former chairman of the other state-owned carrier, Cyprus Airways (CY). Ioannou argued that the government and CY have consistently undermined Eurocypria by creating uncertainty surrounding its future and fighting against its privatisation, leading to “huge disappointment and bitterness” among staff.

“During the past 18 months Eurocypria has made tremendous progress. Along with the other members of the board, we received a problematic and almost bankrupt company and succeeded, in a short space of time, to turn it into a well-organised, trustworthy airline, which attracts attention from foreign investors,” he said.

Ioannou highlighted the numerous surveys on Eurocypria by government departments which all suggest that the state-owned airline should be privatised, something for which “a foreign and reliable investor” has shown interest.

“However, the unjustified and almost daily undermining of our efforts in the past ten months, the unnecessary contestation of the company’s future on behalf of Cyprus Airways (which are worried about their own future), have created confusion between the public and the shareholder, who engaged in a series of surveys, the most recent of which is a study of a potential merger of the two state airlines.”

Ioannou further argued that the government has refused to let the company renew its fleet citing an ongoing study on the future of the airline “without realising the paralysis to which it has led and is leading the company and without comprehending that since the survey will not include a study of routes, it won’t be able to provide an opinion for the subject of aircraft”.

The Eurocypria head said he has agreed to remain in place until a replacement is found.

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