Chaos still prevailed on Thursday morning at Paphos airport after thousands of passengers got stranded amidst a protest on Wednesday by ground staff that has affected over 20 flights.
The protest was to last for two hours only but got prolonged ending five hours later instead, Philenews reports.
For the first time since the operation of Paphos  Airport, the landing and take-off runway as well as passageways to and from the aircraft parking lot were occupied for hours by over 20 aircraft.
This was due to the lack of parking spaces and caused unprecedented confusion and inconvenience.
Planes were immobilized for more than three hours and many passengers got ‘trapped’ inside them while other made emergency landings at Larnaca Airport.
The airport in Paphos, afterall, had reached full capacity of space that it did not allow the arrival of additional planes.
Strike action came following a meeting of the workers in LGS and Swissport operator companies after more competition was introduced to the ground handling services.
He added that originally the decision was to transfer employees from the two companies to positions at the new companies but this did not happen.
Instead, 111 employees from LGS and 45 employees from Swissport were informed of their redundancy, instead of being given positions at the new competitor.
Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos told state radio on Thursday morning he will personally hold talks with both companies as well as with union leaders in a bid to avert any further strike action.
