The latest Air Malta audited accounts and financial statements are still not publicly available despite Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi saying over the weekend that the national airline had made a “turnaround”.
Registry of Companies sources confirmed the documents normally deposited according to law following the official announcement of a company’s performance had not yet been filed.
Efforts by Times of Malta to obtain a copy of the consolidated financial statements and accounts proved futile. A spokesman for Air Malta said he was not in a position to supply copies of the documents, which have, so far, not been posted on its website, either.
“As per normal procedures, Air Malta will be filing its annual report and consolidated financial statements for the year ended March 2018 with the Registrar of Companies and uploading them on its website in the coming weeks,” the airline spokesman said when approached on Monday.
Financial operators deemed this is “rather strange”, adding that once a public announcement was made, as happened last Saturday, one would usually expect all available documentation to be made available for scrutiny.
Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion said the company had turned an €11-million loss in the financial year ended March 2017 into an operational profit of €1.2 million.
He said operating revenue increased by €5.3 million mainly driven by an 11% growth in passengers, 8.5% more flights and a 2.8% increase in seat load factor. Operations expenses dropped by €6.5 million thanks to lower fuel, aircraft leases and maintenance costs.
Dr Mangion warned that it was still an uphill struggle.
In a 2011, the airline had agreed with the EU over a five-year restructuring plan aimed at returning to the black but, three years later, it posted larger than anticipated losses.
Under previous tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis, Air Malta started trimming operations and sought a strategic partner but talks with Etihad via Alitalia failed.
Following Labour’s re-election in 2017 and the appointment of Dr Mizzi as Tourism Minister, the strategy was changed, with the airline focusing on growth, restarting routes closed a few years before and hiving-off loss making operations, including ground handling. Many Air Malta employees were shed, either through an early retirement scheme or by putting them on the government’s payroll.
Asked in Parliament last week whether Air Malta owed Enemed millions of euros in outstanding fuel payments, Dr Mizzi refused to reply, saying it was “commercially sensitive information”.