War, politics and flights of fancy

In these tension filled days, fuelled by our own local politics and the war against Iraq, I was pleased to be distracted from the grim reality of my newspapers while on a recent flight back to Malta from Heathrow.

I was travelling Club Class and shortly before the flight was due to depart, the station manager politely informed me that due to a computer error the aircraft was not carrying a Club Class meal that evening and he proceeded to offer me a Lm10 duty free voucher as compensation.

Given that I had paid nearly £500 for my ticket, I was not particularly impressed with his generosity but as I rarely eat while flying it was not a major problem.

While I had his attention though, I thought that I would remind him of the last time we spoke a week or so previously.

Once again I had been travelling home to Malta and had requested an aisle seat in row one, only to be told that row one was always reserved for ministers.

Having sat in this very seat several dozen or so times before, I insisted, and after many hot words had been exchanged by both the station manager and his assistant I finally got my seat.

Imagine then my surprise when boarding the aircraft I find that I am not sitting next to a minister at all, but in fact opposite an Air Malta staff member, none other than the assistant station manager from Heathrow.

To add insult to injury, there were two Maltese ambassadors also travelling that evening with their families, but obviously, these not being ministers, had been relegated to rows two and three!

Having heard me out, the station manager shook his head slowly and muttered something about company policy. I stressed that in a free economy a fee-paying customer booking should be given consideration over any passenger that was travelling free of charge, pointing out that as a taxpayer I was in all probability contributing towards any minister's travel and even his salary.

The station manager's reply was a simple one: "A policeman also pays tax and contributes to the minister's salary but he still salutes when the minister passes."

As a frequent London-Malta-London traveller, I am extremely fed up with the so-called Club Class service offered by Air Malta and the attitude of their management - lack of leg room, standard seating, mediocre meals and, of course, inflated seat prices. To suffer a lecture from the station manager about seating priorities simply adds more fuel to the fire.

Wake up Air Malta station manager and Air Malta chairman, smell the coffee (albeit a very poor quality coffee), as Bob Dylan sung all those years ago "The times they are a changing". Roll on Malta's future, a Single Sky policy and competition that leaves the customer with a better deal, better service, better aircraft and fewer excuses. A change of management is in order. How about customer-orientated managers rather than those pre-occupied with the whims of "celebrity" politicians?