Kikis Lazarides, the former Chairman of the Laiki Group who was ousted by the bank’s new shareholders last summer, is returning to another chair he held nearly two decades ago.
Lazarides takes over the helm of Cyprus Airways in a last-ditch effort to save the troubled national carrier with a mission to prove two points:
–        that the appointment by close friend Tassos Papadopoulos was one based solely on merit as the president needed a loyal and experienced hand in the ailing company’s cockpit; and,
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â that despite his competence to command a 400-mln pound financial empire, to prove wrong the Marfin people who disregarded his executive capabilities.
As if these two challenges were not enough, the new executive chairman of CAIR has his hands full as regards the age of the fleet, fragile labour relations, increasing competition, rising costs of fuel and hikes airport charges. Even Eurocypria has been separated into a different entity that had often provided a cushion for many of CAIR’s problems. In other words, he could not have asked for a worse job or a bigger challenge.
But going to the “good old days†when Lazarides last held the chairmanship of the airline, following the long rule of Stavros Galatariotis, the airline was a flourishing business with a healthy labour force and modern fleet. It boasted an efficient management team and had even been planning to build its own promises, subsequently taken over by the Central Bank.
Nowadays, the only valuable assets that CAIR has are its fleet and the landing rights at
In the absence of a national policy for the tourism sector, the welfare of the island’s economy lies solely in the hands of a few individuals and the companies they control. One of these is Cyprus Airways that has always stood firm as a pillar for the rest of the sector, often subsidizing new and costly routes in order to attract new waves of tourist arrivals from non-traditional markets.
CAIR survived the after-effects of both Gulf wars, the Turkish blockade of direct flights to
Considering the difficult times that lie ahead, Kikis Lazarides will probably have to permanently move in to the chairman’s office at CAIR and occasionally come out for air. He will need an executive board that will support his every move and a management team that stand will by his side in good times and bad. Most of all, he needs a strong person to take over the general management with a long-term vision, preferably a young and rising star within the airline’s structure or even head-hunt one from the private sector.
Lazarides has already made his first positive policy statement, saying that that he did not discuss any issue of remuneration with the government, but that he plans to link any earnings with a financial recovery and future performance of the company.
