By Jean Christou
ANY ESCALATION of strike action by Cyprus Airways (CY) pilots could force the government’s hand towards immediate air liberalisation, two ministers warned yesterday.
Such a move would allow more foreign airlines to operate freely in and out of Cyprus, and could push the uncompetitive national carrier to the wall.
Both Communications and Works Minister Leondios Ierodiaconou and Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Nicos Rolandis slammed yesterday’s 24-hour pilots’ strike, which was called over pilot promotions.
Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas called the strike illegal, and said CY pilots’ union Pasipy had not followed the correct procedure under the industrial relations code.
An angry Ierodiaconou said the only way CY was surviving at present was through heavy government subsidies.
“If this philosophy, attitude, culture and tradition which have become established continue — because it has got to the point of being a tradition, where everyone who is employed in vital sectors believes he can at any point blackmail the economy — then we as a ministry would suggest the fast-tracking of liberalisation,” he said, adding that for the economy in general, liberalisation was a positive step.
Ierodiaconou said time would be given for CY to prepare itself for liberalisation. “But if this time is taken up with the various confrontations between unions, and this tradition and attitude I spoke of, then we will be forced to suggest the speeding up of liberalisation,” he said.
“And if this situation continues, that is, if tomorrow they declare an indefinite strike, then we as a ministry will be forced to suggest to the state that we declare liberalisation immediately.”
An equally angry Rolandis wondered whether CY was necessary any more — “a company subsidised by the tax payer to the tune of tens of millions of pounds.”
He said Cypriots were paying at least £60 to £70 pounds over the odds to fly to Athens and London. “This is at the expense of the travelling Cypriot and the tourists and at the same time we have strikes. What kind of national carrier is it that creates all this trouble?”
Rolandis said a national carrier must have a sense of national responsibility.
“We cannot at a time of peak tourism have flights being abandoned because pilots have differences with pilots,” he said. “Don’t they realise that Cyprus depends on tourism. If they don’t realise this responsibility of theirs, we must see what we can do.”
According to Rolandis, there are many companies offering to cover the routes covered by CY.
“We have entered the age of deregulation. There is no need any more for the Cypriot citizen to pay all these additional amounts, and in addition to this to have a strike which destroys tourism.”
But the pilots, in addition to denying Moushiouttas’ accusation that the strike was illegal, hit back at the other two ministers’ comments.
They said they were not trying to close the airline, but rather to make management see sense and put the company on the right track.
To back their claim, they cited the fact that they had offered to buy the 12 per cent of CY shares that the government needs to offload by September, in order to reduce its holding in line with Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) regulations.
Pasipy spokesman George Charalambous said yesterday the union had not even received a response to their proposal, either from the company or the government.
“If we did not believe in the future of the company, we would not have made the offer,” he said.
He added pilots suspected the reason for the official silence was that management did not want pilots represented on the board of directors, where they could “see what was going on”.
But CY spokesman Tassos Angelis said yesterday the company was “all for” employees owning shares, and said the pilots’ offer had not been rejected.
CY posted pre-tax profits of £10 million for 1998 after two years of losses.
