ONE TV presenter Karl Stagno Navarra is no longer employed with Air Malta and has been moved to the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA).
A spokesperson for the airline told Times of Malta Stagno Navarra is “no longer employed with the airline” and the TV programme host later told this newspaper he now worked in the OHSA’s communications department.
The controversial presenter of Pjazza on ONE TV, who had moved on from Net TV and was embraced by Labour, was given a lucrative contract with the ailing airline back in 2019 and, until January, was still head of PR and corporate social responsibility.
Asked to confirm that he was no longer on the airline’s payroll, Stagno Navarra said this was no secret. “It was the finance minister himself who announced this back in January,” he said.
He was referring to Clyde Caruana’s press conference detailing how a number of Air Malta employees were to be moved to other areas of the public sector as part of a cost cutting exercise at the airline.
Stagno Navarra said he took the relocation deal offered to him by the government.
Asked what his new role was, he would not divulge this because it was “not in the public interest” and, instead, said “qed nilgħab biċ-ċombini” (I am playing with lace bobbins).
Pressed further, he conceded he was now working in the communications department of the OHSA.
Asked what his new role was, he would not divulge this because it was “not in the public interest” and, instead, said 'qed nilgħab biċ-ċombini (I am playing with lace bobbins)
He would not, however, give information about his package.
When news of Stagno Navarra’s employment with the airline emerged, he would not give details about his salary or allowances, leading to speculation that he was earning about €48,000 or even more.
Times of Malta had filed a Freedom of Information request about it but, at the time, Air Malta said it was not in a position to satisfy the requirements of that request as its employee had refused to give his consent.
“The head of communications has not granted his consent for the requested document to be disclosed and if the document is published this would result in a situation where Air Malta would be in breach of the confidentiality obligations in its contract of employment,” Air Malta had said.
At the time, a spokesperson for Air Malta had said that the ONE TV presenter had been selected “after a call was issued and a diligent selection process followed”. The Labour TV presenter was said to have been recruited by former minister Konrad Mizzi, who, as tourism minister, was then responsible for Air Malta.
Despite taking on the Air Malta role, Stagno Navarra never gave up hosting his daily show on ONE TV.