Airport strike leaves flights unaffected

A spontaneous two-hour work stoppage at Larnaca and Paphos airports on Tuesday morning over understaffing did not impact passengers at the airports, airports operator Hermes said.

Airport service and traffic office staff, members of Pasydy, stopped work at 7am, protesting against what they said were broken promises from two ministers, three permanent secretaries of the transport ministry and the director of the Department of Civil Aviation regarding the deduplication of airport services posts.

These posts, the union says, “were unilaterally scrapped by the Department of Civil Aviation in 2018”.

“This resulted in the serious understaffing of the airport services, affecting the smooth operation and security of our airports.”

Pasydy said that in many cases, staff from Larnaca worked in Paphos too, to cover needs due to understaffing.

The union said a letter was received last week saying that there was an agreement in force, other than what had been agreed with the transport minister, which “left us stunned”.

Pasydy says it expects an immediate intervention on behalf of the state to solve the problem and implement what has been agreed.

The union apologised to travellers for any inconvenience.