Air Malta’s COO has attributed some of the recent flight delays to the shortage of aircraft being faced by the whole industry, caused by technical problems as a result of the length of time planes spent idle during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief operating officer Declan Keller said several aircraft manufacturers, such as Airbus, had found corrosion in certain aircraft parts, which needed replacement before the planes could return to the air.
Sourcing spare parts was also presenting a problem because airlines were trying to source them at the same time. As a result, many planes were grounded, further limiting the number of planes available for wet leasing, he said.
Keller said the lack of parts was affecting the aircraft Air Malta currently has on scheduled maintenance.
The difficulties were further compounded by capacity issues at major airports, such as those in France which are facing industrial action.
Air Malta made the headlines in recent days after a good number of its flights were hit with long delays.
A flight from Brussels landed in Malta at 7.25am last Tuesday, having been due at 10.40pm on Monday. Also last week, two Air Malta flights between Rome and Malta were delayed by over six hours. Another flight to Brussels was due to leave Malta at 4.05pm but departed shortly before midnight.
Keller said the significant flight delays on some of its services were the result of a “ripple effect” from the withdrawal of the airline’s brand new aircraft due to a software failure at the same time as a wet-leased aircraft was taken out of service at the last minute.
We do not have the luxury of having an extra plane waiting on the apron just in case it is needed
Air Malta chairman David Curmi added that safety was of utmost importance for the airline.
“We will not fly if we do not have certification that it is safe. That’s our number one priority,” he said, adding that one technical fault on one plane had a snowball effect on other operations.
“We do not have the luxury of having an extra plane waiting on the apron just in case it is needed. We have eight planes, and the entire schedule is built around these eight planes, working back-to-back, with turnarounds of just 50 minutes. This is how the airline can make money, so the smallest problem disrupts the schedule,” he said.
“A spare plane would cost the airline €800,000 a month, excluding additional costs such as fuel and crew. The fleet will continue being an issue, but we need to work around it, taking operational decisions that minimise the impact on our customers,” he added.
He said the airline was not seeing a slowdown in bookings as a result of the delays. On the contrary, most of its flights were packed, including the business class.