CyprusTransport Minister Nicos Nicolaides ordered Hermes Airports, the manager and operator of Cyprus’ two airports to force the two companies handling ground facilities to put their houses in order, otherwise he warned he would shut them down.
Zacharias Koulias, Chairman of the House Communications Committee said the situation hit crisis point on Tuesday when ground staff at Larnaca airport boarded a group of passengers on to the wrong plane. A busload of passengers travelling to Rome were put on board another Cyprus Airways flight ready to depart. After realising the mix-up, the passengers got off the plane and waited for another bus to come and pick them up, with the chaos continuing on the bus as the driver could not find the right plane.
Koulias who decided to visit the airport experienced first hand scenes of chaos which he said ranged from a lack of communication and expertise, to a serious shortage of staff.
He said Louis Group, one of the ground handling companies had promised and was taking action to correct the situation, but the other company Swissport had not yet taken action to remedy the situation. Koulias said Swissport had only four workers on duty responsible for overseeing eight aircraft last week, something which he described as unfortunate.
“They (companies) are only interested in making a profit while ignoring the responsibilities they have to passengers.” He added that in some cases the ground handling companies were loading cargo and then giving wrong information to the pilots, thus seriously jeopardising the safety of the aircraft.
Ground handling at the island’s airports was taken over in May by a joint venture from Cyprus Airways (CY) and Swissport – GAP Vassilopoulos (Cyprus) Ltd, and a second joint venture; LGS (Louis, Gold Air and Service Air) Handling.
Other complaints made against the ground handling companies is the serious delays encountered in the area of baggage claims and baggage handling in general since the two companies took over passenger service, with reports of some cases where passengers have had to wait more than 100 minutes for their suitcases to arrive.
Hermes is believed to be unhappy, in particular with Swissport because its actions are damaging the airport operator’s image, even though Hermes made it clear that they were not responsible for the operations of the two ground handling companies.
According to the sources Hermes has repeatedly made it clear that the situation needed to change.
