Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi warned Air Malta pilots on Thursday that they will have to “embrace change,” insisting that the national airline will not tolerate demands which it deems “unsustainable.”

Dr Mizzi, speaking in Parliament during the Budget debate, was referring to demands by pilots for guarantees of a golden handshake of up to €700,000 even if the airline folds.

This sort of guarantees could not be given, Dr Mizzi said, as, apart from constituting illegal state aid, they would be unfair to all other Maltese workers.

All stakeholders needed to understand that the status quo in Air Malta prior to the 2013 election could not be maintained, as it had cost the Maltese taxpayer €250 million in government subsidy, he said.

Last month, Dr Mizzi had warned pilots that, should they fail to cooperate with government efforts to reform Air Malta, investment and new opportunities including a planned New York direct route would be directed towards government-owned Malta Med Air or towards other airlines instead of towards Air Malta.

In his remarks on Thursday, Dr Mizzi said that 19 new direct routes had been introduced by the national airline during 2019, demonstrating that Air Malta was a “pillar” of the tourism industry which the government would continue to nurture.

He said that Air Malta’s operations would be fully fine-tuned in nine months’ time, and that the government’s goal thereof would be to see the national airline become the “airline of the Mediterranean” which could also have direct routes to the United States, India, and Canada.

Dr Mizzi said that a strategic plan for Malta International Airport and the surrounding area would be drawn up in order to make the airport more efficient and an economic hub. The plans included a new €18 million air traffic control centre, a €3 million investment to improve the Dingli radar and improvements to the secondary radar.

Plans for the airport area could include a site for the development and testing of drones, whose use was expected to grow in the near future. 

Air Malta’s engineering department was also working towards offering its services to other airlines in a move which would require “changes in work practices.” It is expected to have its first clients shortly. 

In his speech Dr Mizzi also underscored a need for Malta to have a modern convention centre and said this project could be carried out by the government, the private sector, or jointly.