Cyprus Airways (CAIR) ground staff are going on strike for two hours on Thursday morning affecting three flights to protest against a decision by government-owned charter carrier Eurocypria to switch its ground handling services from CAIR to another private provider.
The 180 staff, members of the SYNYKA trade union, are employed in the departments of customer service, operations, cargo loading and mail, and their strike from 6am to 8am will affect two CAIR flights at Paphos airport and one at Larnaca.
The union, sensing potential job losses if these divisions are not productive, wants the Ministry of Transport to intervene to persuade Eurocypria to give the contract back to CAIR.
Cyprus Airways management announced late Wednesday that it submitted an offer to Eurocypria for the continuation of ground handling services, which the charter carrier rejected as it was deemed as not profitable and awarded the contract to another bidder.
“Eurocypria has every right to act in any way it believes will best serve its interests,†a CAIR announcement said.
The charter company, that has been running an efficient operation and has shown a small profit as it maintained costs to a minimum, was sold by troubled Cyprus Airways to the government last year for CYP 13.5 mln (EUR 23.2 mln) in an effort to reduce the ailing national carrier’s debts.
The state owns 69% of CAIR that is quoted on the CSE, and 100% of Eurocypria, which are now run as separate entities.
The European Commission last week approved CAIR’s restructuring plan as it had been submitted in May 2005 that included a state grant in the form of a government-backed loan of CYP 30 mln (EUR 51 mln), the sale of Eurocypria, further cutbacks and a capital increase.
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— CAIR losses reduced
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Meanwhile, the CAIR board has approved the group draft results for 2006 that show earnings rise from CYP 141,8 mln (EUR 244 mln) in 2005 to CYP 157 mln (EUR 270 mln), due mainly to an improvement in yields on passenger seat sales.
Operational costs were marginally reduced from CYP 161 mln (EUR 277 mln) to CYP 159.8 mln (EUR 275 mln), including redundancies that were tripled from CYP 3 mln (EUR 5.1 mln) in 2005 to CYP 10.5 mln (EUR 18 mln). With the exception of the payments for voluntary redundancies, real operational costs were reduced by CYP 7.8 mln (EUR 13.4 mln) from 2005.
Operational losses were reduced from CYP 18.2 mln (EUR 31.3 mln) in 2005 to CYP 13.3 mln (EUR 22.9 mln), while costs were contained because of the sale of an aircraft, a spare engine and spare parts.
