Paphos deputy mayor Angelos Onisiforou called for action to be taken over a “serious staff shortage” at the town’s airport.

Speaking to local news website Pafosnet, he said the shortage concerns ground handling company Swissport, which manages around 90 per cent of flights at the airport, with this shortage now having “a direct impact on flight service, and by extension, the image of Paphos and Cyprus in general as a tourist destination”.

He said Swissport’s current staff are “working at an exhausting pace with constant overtime”, and that this fact “creates pressure” and “increases errors, delays, and inconveniences”, and also causes issues “for the safety of the visitors themselves”.

Additionally, he said, delays in loading and unloading luggage, as well as in servicing flights, are now a “daily occurrence”, with there said to be numerous complaints from passengers, as well as from company staff, who, according to Onisiforou, are “concerned about the prevailing conditions”.

He added that airlines have “already expressed written complaints about this situation” to Swissport’s head offices in Opfikon, near Zurich, and that this fact “demonstrates the seriousness of the situation”.

“It is clear that Swissport must immediately employ additional staff, with better salaries and working conditions, to ensure its smooth operation,” he said.

He then turned his attention to the government, saying that “the competent ministries must immediately proceed with visa liberalisation procedures for the employment of staff from third countries, since the demand cannot be met with the existing workforce”.

The government last amended its rules regarding the employment of third-country nationals in December, allowing students who are third-country nationals to work on the island in an expanded number of professions while completing their studies.

Prior to that, Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou had announced the creation of an “advisory tripartite technical committee” , which would advise the government on decisions regarding the employment of workers from third countries to fill gaps in Cyprus’ labour market.

The committee would be made up of representatives of the government, trade unions and employers’ organisations.

This year, Cyprus chamber of commerce and industry (Keve) secretary-general Philokypros Rousounides warned that Cyprus’ domestic labour market can no longer meet employer demands.

“There are no compatriots available to work, which means that businesses have no alternative but to import people and human resources in order to continue operating, expand, and create new jobs,” he said, adding that “foreign recruitment is now the only available source from which labour can be directly drawn”.