Olympic Airways engineers back Georgiades

THE UNION of Flight Engineers of Olympic Airways (EPTAOA) gave their backing to recently fired head of the aircraft maintenance at Cyprus Airways, Andreas Georgiades.

Georgiades, who was also the assistant manager of the Cyprus Airways Technical Department and is currently Head of Aircraft Engineers International (AEI), was fired in early October in a recent wave of sackings at Cyprus Airways which could see a further 700 employees without jobs by the end of the year.

An announcement by EPTAOA said, “For us Greek engineers as well as Cypriots and Cyprus Airways, it should be a national honor that Georgiades is head of the AEI. The people responsible should be preserving Georgiades as a national symbol and not dismiss him.”

EPTAOA, who highlighted Georgiades’ scientific and professional expertise in his field in their announcement, further requested Cyprus Airways to review their decision and reappoint Georgiades.

Last week, Georgiades told the Cyprus Mail, “They just told me one day, ‘we don’t need you anymore’ and they wouldn’t tell me why. I have kept asking for an answer from the Chairman of Cyprus Airways and still I have heard nothing.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.