Air Malta is in the news again for the wrong reasons. The future of the national airline is, at best, bleak. The minister responsible for Air Malta still hopes to strike a state aid agreement with the EU competition authorities. The chairperson then made it clear that the national airline would be replaced by the end of the year.
Turbulence again hit the troubled airline a few days ago when Finance Minister Clyde Caruana told parliament that pilots had refused to substitute a few of their colleagues who called in sick.
This resulted in lengthy delays after a number of flights were rescheduled.
Calling the attitude “irresponsible”, Caruana said the Airline Pilots Association had not registered an industrial dispute but had ordered its members to work to rule following a non-productive meeting on new working conditions with the airline’s management. The disturbance seems to have dissipated for now – with the airline on Friday describing the situation as being “back to normal” – but the damage to the airline’s reputation will be longer lasting.
It would be inconceivable for employees of a struggling company, whose massive losses are being underwritten by taxpayers, to expect better working conditions than those prevailing in their industry.
Air Malta has been bleeding taxpayers’ money for decades, with one failed restructuring exercise following another. Many understandably ask why the agony of the national airline is being prolonged at such high cost when the country needs infrastructural investment in vital public services like the health system.
It would be inconceivable for employees of a struggling company, whose massive losses are being underwritten by taxpayers, to expect better working conditions than those prevailing in their industry.
However, a healthy national airline is an enabler of the tourism industry and equally important for the citizens of an island who rely on air travel to get out of the country. The Malta Hotel and Restaurants Association expressed understandable concern about the latest operational troubles affecting travellers. It urged ALPA to shoulder responsibility “before causing any further disruption that will directly hurt people of goodwill who have been waiting for this moment for their business to finally pick up”. Hopefully, the MHRA’s advice will be heeded and the airline will not continue losing the trust of its clients.
This and previous administrations have treated some public sector workers as “special cases” for too long, providing them with safety nets when their companies fail. The shipyards, the Dragonara Casino, Kalaxlokk and now Air Malta employees all benefitted from generous termination benefits that are denied to workers in the private sector.
The culture of entitlement of many of those working in public entities is unfair to taxpayers and those employed in private industry. It erodes ordinary people’s trust in an administration that they see as being prepared to buy industrial peace and retain the loyalty of a minority of disgruntled voters by dishing out taxpayer money to cushion the impact of economic failure.
Some airline industry experts question whether a small national airline can compete in Europe’s overcrowded skies and a workforce without the economies of scale enjoyed by larger airlines.
Air Malta’s existence with the support of state aid can only be justified if it hits its strategic targets consistently. Since the liberalisation of the European airline industry in the 1990s, Air Malta has not demonstrated that its operations can be sustainable without massive taxpayer support.
The public is being asked to perform another act of faith in Air Malta’s future. Yet, there is no point in bailing out the failures of the past. We must invest in a future of viable enterprises that present as light a burden as possible to taxpayers.