COVID vaccine requirements
Is the Maltese government intent on destroying the economy of the island? COVID vaccinations being valid for only three months means that the majority of those vaccinated will be unable to travel to Malta (bang go my plans again).
With the rest of Europe being in its right mind and open, it means Malta will be isolated completely.
Nobody is now going to bother with tests when they can freely travel anywhere else.
Something is radically wrong somewhere.
Paul Brincau – Uxbridge, UK
Disturbing survey calls
May I please appeal to all who embark on surveys through phone calls to desist from calling in the afternoons, when most elderly persons would be having a nap.
Paul Xuereb – Balzan
Rebuilding Air Malta from the ground up
Tony Zahra (‘Air Malta: no alternative way’, January 22) is right. I am suggesting a “franchise operation” to replace Air Malta as a flag carrier brand. My alternative would be to create a lean, efficient operating entity with more airplanes than currently operated by Air Malta.
Franchise agreements can be long term and innovative. Zahra is incorrect to state that such agreements have to be short term.
My concept is tested with successful long-term agreements on two continents:
1. CimberAir of Denmark and CityJet of the UK have been flying thousands of flights in SAS livery.
2. Mesa and Envoy are US examples with 100+ aircraft each.
3. Chorus Aviation/Jazz operates thousands of flights in Air Canada livery.
I am not advocating transplanting any of these examples to Malta. Instead, a tailor-made, sustainable solution is needed that will maximise long-term tourist arrivals and create good jobs in Malta. Work on the new business model needs to start from a clean sheet.
Frequently, a major carrier wishes to serve routes which cannot be flown profitably with its existing fleet types. Contracting a production platform that can fill this gap efficiently and flexibly is often the preferred option.
In order to interest a major European airline in a long-term agreement with Air Malta as a capacity provider, Air Malta would need to demonstrate that it can not only deliver a reliable, safe operation but can also manage its controllable costs to be lower than those of the purchasing airline. Fuel, for example, is not controllable. One possibility could be for the capacity purchasing airline to sublease fleet to Air Malta.
After two decades of failed Air Malta turnaround attempts, I am advocating development of an out-of-box solution. I am not talking about hubs, point to point carriers, Italy, outstations, staff or any other details mentioned by Zahra. He lauds the code-sharing that I introduced to Malta but that is not nearly enough for sustainability.
He states that the business model I am advocating has already been tested in Malta. When? I am not sure how he can advocate buying airplanes for short-term charters (high risk) and oppose my long-term franchise idea which has similarities to charters but with low risk and a long-time horizon.
Making a mistake once in business is understandable as mistakes are a cost of innovation. But making the same mistakes multiple times is inexcusable.
Brock Friesen, former Air Malta commercial chief – Vancouver
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