Jobs will not be lost at Air Malta despite a setback in the restructuring plan agreed with Brussels, according to Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis.
Acknowledging the airline faced renewed financial difficulties, he said the government was committed to saving Air Malta.
“Cost cutting will not include job losses or voluntary retirement schemes that depleted the airline of some of its good people in the past,” Dr Zammit Lewis said yesterday on One TV breakfast show Paper Scan.
Air Malta underwent major surgery three years ago that saw its workforce cut by half, its fleet of airplanes reduced and subsidiary companies sold off.
But the airline will be forced to review its cost structure again after Air Malta chairwoman Maria Micallef told The Sunday Times of Malta the company was expecting a loss of €16 million in March next year instead of reaching breakeven stage as envisaged by the plan.
Air Malta should be turning a profit by March 2016, the last year of the plan, which puts the onus on the new management to act fast.
Dr Zammit Lewis said the European Commission had not yet issued any warnings but he insisted the airline had to become commercially viable. He said the Libya crisis this year, which led to the closure of Tripoli airport, had starved the airline of a profitable route.
Cost cutting will not include job losses or voluntary retirement schemes that depleted the airline of some of its good people in the past
“This is something management had no control over but this is the nature of the airline industry and we have to ensure Air Malta acts fast enough to tap opportunities as they arise.”
Air Malta could turn out to be a thorny political issue in the year preceding the next general election if the restructuring plan fails.
The pumping of millions of euros of taxpayers’ money into the airline as part of the plan cannot be repeated under EU rules.
Air Malta will have to finance its own losses, close down or seek a strategic partner if it does not succeed in turning around its fortunes by 2016.
Dr Zammit Lewis said all options were on the table when asked whether the government was seeking a strategic partner for the airline.
The minister was entrusted with the tourism portfolio in the March reshuffle. Since then the airline has had a new chairwoman and chief executive.
But Dr Zammit Lewis swept aside a suggestion that the Prime Minister had handed him a political timebomb with Air Malta.
“I am thankful because it shows the trust the Prime Minister has placed in me,” he said.