Cyprus airports ground handlers slapped with €112,000 fine

Transport Minister Nicos Nicolaides has fined the two airports ground handlers, Swissport-Vassilopoulos and LGS Handling, with EUR 112,000 for delays in baggage collection and other incidences, such as refusal to allow a drunk passenger to board an aircraft because Civil Aviation had not been informed.
All of the reported cases and incidences took place during that start of the summer peak season in the first half of July, more than a month after the private companies took over the services from the government. Local news reports focused on the chaos that ensued at the airports with flight delays, loss of luggage and other problems.
LGS was fined EUR 59,000 for most of the cases at Paphos airport and Swissport-Vassilopoulos was fined EUR 52,000 for most of the cases at Larnaca.
However, LGS has challenged the fine saying the government’s decision is “far from reality and legally baseless.”
The company, controlled by the Louis Group, said that it applied all the commitments agreed to in an action plan provided to the Civil Aviation Dept. as well as the private operator Hermes Airports on July 7 and has proceeded to hire foreign experts and trainers, and most of the cases involved incidences prior to the submission of the action plan.
LGS added that all the efforts for improved services are hampered by the inefficient building facilities at both airports, making them the most dysfunctional in the whole of Europe.
Justifying its efforts and indirectly suggesting that the airports operator has not provided the necessary facilities, LGS gave an example of four additional check-in counters being temporarily set-up at the Larnaca airport bus terminal, while in Paphos, flights with 300 or more passengers had to be processed through one check-in counter, once again showing the insufficient facilities provided at the airports.
Delays were also reported when there were not enough gates available to board the passengers, LGS added, saying these were inefficiencies that the government chose to ignore.
LGS Handling concluded that it took over its share of ground handling services at Paphos airport on April 7 and at Larnaca airport on May 29 and had only a month to hire, train and retrain staff, whereas the operator Hermes Airports was allowed a six-month transition period from the day it took over from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Finally, LGS said that the 60 airlines it provides services to recognize the difficulties and the conditions under which the company was obliged to operate, adding that all the airlines also recognize that the ground handling services are now better than they were ever before.
Passengers will have to brace for more difficulties until the new airport terminal buildings are ready in Paphos by November this year and in Larnaca by November 2009.