‘National’ airline only in name

Barely two weeks into the inaugural operation of the new national airline, KM Malta Airlines have already run foul of the promise of a new beginning, free from the shackles of the past that brought the former Air Malta to its knees.

Never mind the teething trouble and glitches in the booking system, and the hassle one has to go through to rectify the faulty booking. At least, they do not have the effrontery to ask for a fee yet for the changes required.

Moreover, the waiver of knowledge of the Maltese language and ability to speak it by pilots and cabin crew has hardly endeared the airline with the Maltese population. The reason given was that 80 per cent of passengers were going to be tourists, so it was not necessary for Maltese to be spoken on board.

KM Malta Airlines. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

On an 8.45pm flight from Milan Linate airport to Malta on April 7, a Sunday, announcements by the pilot were made only in English, not to mention the safety instructions as well.

A lady sitting next to my husband asked one of the cabin crew for a glass of warm water in Maltese. Of course, none of the cabin crew could understand what she was asking for as they were all foreigners. When they realised they could not understand her, they became flustered and simply moved away, ignoring her completely.

Is this the service we are going to expect from the new national airline? Not very encouraging.

Other contentious policies are cropping up too, like asking wheelchair users to fork out a €15 fee for a medical information form, which was never a requisite before. Will this encourage affected users and their families to use the fledgling airline? Hardly.

Does this mean that the Maltese passengers’ needs and comfort are going to be sidelined in favour of those of tourists? Do we call this a national airline when the nationals are being discriminated against in such a blatant manner?

If this is going to be so, then long live Ryanair.

Antoinette Azzopardi – Nadur

The 1551 razzia

I read with great interest the article by Giovanni Bonello, ‘The disappeared 1551 Gozitan documents and Dr Lewis Mizzi’ (March 31).

As I am researching more documents about ‘The Church and Friary of St Francis in Victoria, Gozo’, the testament of Donnus Antonius Machanuc (not Don Marianus Mahanuc, as referred to in the article), discovered at the NAF, is a sign that the Friars Minor Conventual existed in Gozo prior to the razzia of 1551. One can see this well explained in the article ‘Unearthing Gozo’s medieval documents’, published in 2015.

Apart from this, it was written several times that Friar Lazarus Tewma OFM Conv. was taken by the Turks in 1551, as was also Friar Michael Pincia OFM Conv., as one can read in an arts thesis by Leah Borg, published by the University of Malta only in 2021. I have discovered a community of 14 religious members of the friary of St Augustine in Gozo in 1525.

I am very sorry that, up to now, we haven’t finished our list of people taken as slaves by the Turks. Is it possible that the Knights of Malta, who were governing Malta at the time, had no report of what happened? I think we need to put together our findings in one place also with the help of the authorities, especially the ministry for Gozo. The Gozo ministry has already helped, as did Mgr Dr Joseph Bezzina and Daniel Cilia. Still not enough information is available, though I don’t blame anybody.

As Bonello states, we need to renew our plea to bring back our documents from Turkey, France and also Sicily.

Thanks to everyone who, up to now, have made an effort to research or publish their findings about the razzia by the Turks in 1551.

Fr George Attard OFM Conv. – Victoria