Let Air Malta soar again
Sun, Sep 22nd 2019, 18:11 Last updated 1 day, 1 hour ago
The International Air Transport Association predicts that, on the basis of present trends in air transport, passenger numbers could double to 8.2 billion by 2037, anticipating a 3.5 per cent compound annual growth rate over the next two decades.
Airbus Industrie points out that the global commercial aviation network connects 3,190 cities and 3,250 airports and that connectivity between airports, which has doubled since the early 1980s, continues to grow.
So, the civil aviation industryfaces a rosy future. Not so, Malta’s national airline.
Against many odds, including lack of support on the home front, some even saying “the birds of steel” would never take off, Air Malta started operations in mid-1974 and, bar the teething troubles, did make it with flying colours.
The government’s determination, the input of the Pakistani aviation experts assisting in setting up the airline and the staff all pulling the same rope contributed to the overcoming of the many hurdles encountered. The venture worked, with a degree of protectionist measures, admittedly, and Air Malta became the pride of the Maltese people.
But then things started to happen that put unnecessary burdens on the company and, as any aviation enthusiast would tell you, weight could affect an aircraft’s commercial performance. The government, the company’s main shareholder, used Air Malta to curry favours, overloaded it with surplus staff and agreed to lucrative working conditions that were evidently unsustainable.
The rest is history – or, rather, the present state the airline is in. Pity, indeed, and shame on those who had the resposibility to ensure Air Malta would continue to fly and to serve by supporting the country’s economic and cultural development.
The financial situation of the national carrier is in bad shape – as it has been for a number of years – and, instead of seeing staff and management working together to save the day, the opposite is happening. The government and the pilots are engaged in a war of words and worse, to the extent that the airline had to take court action to ensure the cockpit crew would not strike, as they threatened to do.
Ostensibly, the bone of contention is the collective agreement but few, if any, believe this is the case. One cannot be sure either that the pilots are right when they imply they are overworked.
Sometimes one wonders what the first priority is for some of them: the airline or their private business, which, of course, they have every right to have.
The shareholder – the government – on the other hand must ensure it puts all cards on the table. Setting up companies that can be viewed as having the potential of being in direct competition with Air Malta or signing partnership deals with such competitors as Ryanair are likely to raise eyebrows among the staff and foment distrust.
There has been talk that Air Malta might be wound down and started from scratch. That would be like tearing away hundreds of pages from the civil aviation industry history book of these islands.
If Air Malta truly wants to be ‘More than just an airline’, as its motto says, the government should resolve to step aside, set up a competent board and top management team well versed with the present industry and let them work.
Perhaps Air Malta can then soar again.