11/01/2011 14:13
“The lifeline of Cyprus Airways is very short”, CAIR CEO, Giorgos Mavrokostas stated on Tuesday. Explaining to the Parliament earlier today the reasons that forced the company to abolish certain itineraries, Mr. Mavrokostas said that if the company hadn’t done so, its financial position would have been even worse.
“If we hadn’t taken those measures, we wouldn’t hold out until April. The lifeline of CAIR is very restricted”, he noted.
CAIR, which suffered losses of €25 million in the first half of 2010, goes through a crisis and many efforts for its survival via a consolidation plan have been made.
CAIR Executive Chairman reiterated that the Company faces profitability problems, partly due to the competition from the low-budget airlines.
He explained that for an Airbus 320, the Company has 152 air seats while other companies (with the same aircraft) have 182 because they use smaller seats.
As for the abolition of the itineraries to and from Paphos, he said that the decision was taken for the survival of the national carrier. “There are loss-making itineraries in Larnaca too”, he added.
“That’s why the company abolished the flights to and from Larnaca from Cairo and Jeddah, while it reduced those to Stansted, Amsterdam and Manchester”, he said.
“At the same time, CAIR increased the itineraries to and from Larnaca to St. Petersburg and Moscow so that it survives”, he added.
Responding to MPs from Paphos, who supported that the occupancy ratio of the flights to and from Paphos exceeded 80%, he said that the occupancy ratio is not the only parameter for a company to be profitable since this also depends on the price of the tickets too.
“Today, we have flights that are 100% full but we still lose money”, he stressed.
Mr. Mavrokostas emphasized that the flights to and from Paphos were loss-making since every double landing to the airport requires €5 thousand.
According to Mr. Mavrokostas, the government and the EU must find ways to deal with the problem.
“The main competitors are Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines. It is noted that the salaries of the CAIR pilots are double than those of their colleagues in the Greek companies, while those of the flight attendants are triple than the salaries of the flight of flight attendants of the aforementioned companies”, he said.
“The action plan will include salary cuts of 15%-20%”, he said.
Mr. Mavrokostas finally said that by the end of the month the company will prepare a study, which will examine whether Paphos will operate as a basis for two aircrafts for CAIR.
“If we hadn’t taken those measures, we wouldn’t hold out until April. The lifeline of CAIR is very restricted”, he noted.
CAIR, which suffered losses of €25 million in the first half of 2010, goes through a crisis and many efforts for its survival via a consolidation plan have been made.
CAIR Executive Chairman reiterated that the Company faces profitability problems, partly due to the competition from the low-budget airlines.
He explained that for an Airbus 320, the Company has 152 air seats while other companies (with the same aircraft) have 182 because they use smaller seats.
As for the abolition of the itineraries to and from Paphos, he said that the decision was taken for the survival of the national carrier. “There are loss-making itineraries in Larnaca too”, he added.
“That’s why the company abolished the flights to and from Larnaca from Cairo and Jeddah, while it reduced those to Stansted, Amsterdam and Manchester”, he said.
“At the same time, CAIR increased the itineraries to and from Larnaca to St. Petersburg and Moscow so that it survives”, he added.
Responding to MPs from Paphos, who supported that the occupancy ratio of the flights to and from Paphos exceeded 80%, he said that the occupancy ratio is not the only parameter for a company to be profitable since this also depends on the price of the tickets too.
“Today, we have flights that are 100% full but we still lose money”, he stressed.
Mr. Mavrokostas emphasized that the flights to and from Paphos were loss-making since every double landing to the airport requires €5 thousand.
According to Mr. Mavrokostas, the government and the EU must find ways to deal with the problem.
“The main competitors are Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines. It is noted that the salaries of the CAIR pilots are double than those of their colleagues in the Greek companies, while those of the flight attendants are triple than the salaries of the flight of flight attendants of the aforementioned companies”, he said.
“The action plan will include salary cuts of 15%-20%”, he said.
Mr. Mavrokostas finally said that by the end of the month the company will prepare a study, which will examine whether Paphos will operate as a basis for two aircrafts for CAIR.
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