Athens - The Greek government tried yesterday to ease worker concerns at the embattled carrier, Olympic Airways, saying its new British managers would not cut jobs and that most current flights would be maintained.
"There will be no job cuts, the government will fund Olympic to purchase new planes and all existing domestic destinations will continue to be serviced," the Finance Minister, Mr Yannos Papandoniou, said after a meeting with OSPA, Olympic's largest union.
"But I tried to explain that Olympic's survival is now exclusively up to the management and the workers. We can't continue to subsidise a company that is always in the red."
Olympic workers went on strike last Thursday, cancelling most flights in and out of Greece, and threaten a repetition tomorrow to protest at a deal giving the firm's management to Speedwing, a British Airways subsidiary, for 30 months.