Resignations at Cyprus Airways

Achilleas Kyprianou, the Vice President of the board of Cyprus Airways (CAIR), resigned Thursday amid the public furore over the troubled national carrier’s labour conflicts.

Kyprianou, a veteran member of the board and elder brother of EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, disagreed with the board decision to sack 22 cabin crew that resulted in the airline being grounded on Monday and Tuesday.

He said he was not present at the board meeting last Friday that agreed on the redundancies.

This is the second resignation of a board member in as many days, after Christos Papaellinas quit on Wednesday.

Cyprus Airways cabin crew called off their strike Tuesday night, after the Ministry of Labour found that both the airline’s management and the unions had violated the code of industrial relations.

The company’s board recalled Monday’s redundancy notices of 22 cabin crew that had resulted in the impromptu strike decision by their union. Passengers were delayed by several hours and tourists were flown out on alternative flights.

In all 22 chief stewards were handed redundancy notices for an average compensation of CYP 40,000 per person, following the smooth layoffs of another 123 ground staff two weeks ago.

The partly state-owned company, which announced losses of CYP 33.5 mln for 2004, nearly double the losses for 2003, had justified the latest layoffs saying it would enormous savings.

The crew were only working ten hours a day as they were retained under union pressure, despite four Airbus A310s being sold off in 2003.

The airline’s board later announced that the redundancy decision was part of a general rescue plan to keep Cyprus Airways afloat. It said it will resume negotiations and mediation through the Labour Ministry as it believes it has no alternative but to continue with severe cost cutting.