As a small island nation, Malta must have reliable air connectivity to mainland Europe to underpin its economic strategies with robust foundations. Air travel reliability is not just about frequency and diversity of connections. It is also about punctuality in arrivals and departures of scheduled flights.

The latest Eurocontrol report confirms that many flights are not ready for take-off at the scheduled time. Malta has experienced the highest number of inbound flight delays in the EU this year. The country has also ranked second to worst for outbound flight punctuality. This is not good news for a country with an open economy that depends on trade in goods and services to prosper.

It must be said that, this summer, the European airline industry faced some extraordinary challenges. This year the threat of travel restrictions caused by COVID was practically eliminated. The pent-up demand for holiday travel has created tremendous pressures on airlines and airports as millions of tourists booked holidays in foreign destinations.

In some countries, air traffic controllers and airline staff decided to exploit airports’ vulnerability to effectively manage the summer rush for air travel to press for wage increases.

Still, the lack of punctuality of inbound and outbound flights in Malta’s International Airport (MIA) is also attributable to some causes within the local stakeholders’ control. An MIA spokesperson told Times of Malta that some of the most common causes of disruptions included inclement weather, technical issues and industrial action beyond the airport’s reasonable control. This is a plausible explanation if these issues are purely extraneous. But one still needs to ask what the local efficiency barriers are.

Eurocontrol director general Raul Medina told the Airport Council International meeting in Barcelona earlier this year: “Airports need to be well staffed; it is vital air traffic controllers provide enough capacity and that airlines stick to their schedules.”

As the MIA and the Malta Tourism Authority have made boosting visitor numbers one of their key performance indicators, the public needs to know whether the push for mass tourism is stretching the airport’s infrastructure resources to the limit.

Air Malta continues to struggle to keep afloat. Its flights are riddled with delays this year as the shortage of aircraft disrupts scheduled flight punctuality. Many argue that the national airline is already a gone concern in a moribund state led by a top management team lacking experience in airline economics and the ability to turnaround distressed enterprises.

Malta Air CEO David O’Brien made some cryptic comments on “misbehaviour” and “unprofessional” practices by Malta’s air traffic controllers, leading to longer flights and fuel wastage.

The government must react to these comments and put travellers’ minds at rest on safety issues.

The lack of punctuality of so many flights is another indicator of the fallacy of promoting substantial growth, especially in tourism, without ensuring that the country’s physical infrastructure can cope with it.

The economy and the public are suffering from the lack of politicians’ foresight in laying the foundations of economic growth on a sound basis.

All stakeholders must understand the wisdom of the maxim that, in business, the top line is vanity and the bottom line is sanity.

We must stop chasing increases in turnover and concentrate on the bottom line of our economic activities that is measured by the added value to investors and the community.