THE FINANCE Minister yesterday ruled out financial aid to Eurocypria after the House Finance Committee on Monday called for a radical overhaul of the charter airline.
The airline, which has been experiencing a bumpy ride since it was bought by the state from Cyprus Airways (CY), has been accused of bad management and squandering hundreds of thousands of euros on unnecessary leasing.
Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said 2008 will be a difficult year due to the rising price of oil, adding that any new financial support would have to be approved by the EU first.
“Opinions and ideas are being discussed but I don’t want to go into any details at this stage,” he said.
“The point is to keep both Eurocypria and Cyprus Airways in Cypriot hands.”
Stavrakis added: “We need to protect these two airlines to the best of our abilities as they are responsible for bringing a lot of people and tourism to our country, thus contributing vastly to our economy. In the next few weeks, we will definitely have developments.”
He said there was definitely a possibility of the company being bought by foreigners.”
At present, Eurocypria is entirely owned by the government, which also has a 60 per cent stake in stock market-listed CY.
On Monday, AKEL deputy Yiannos Lamaris said there was a “real problem” with Eurocypria, stating that it needed a radical overhaul that would incorporate strategic planning aimed at making the airline more profitable and securing the future of its workforce.
“Otherwise the airline will be at a disadvantage,” he said.
Opposition DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou said his party expected the government fully to inform Parliament of their plans for Eurocypria.
The airline has been experiencing a number of difficulties since it was purchased by the government from national carrier CY in 2006. The airline was forced last June to lease planes from outside after being grounded by Civil Aviation for not having enough staff to operate under international regulations.
A leasing deal with a Canadian company to solve the problem later led to strike action by pilots due to the earlier lack of foresight in securing enough staff at Eurocypria. The blunder cost the airline hundreds of thousands in leasing costs.
CY pilots union PASYPI yesterday released a statement saying news of Eurocypria’s difficulties was not a shock.
“Eurocypria has no relation to CY and our union actually was against its establishment. However, as usual, our opinion is not listened to.”
The statement went on to say that proof of the airline’s failure is the fact that after it was sold to the government, it recorded increasing losses.
“We will not tolerate experiments such as these which affect CY and its members,” the statement concluded.
