No strategic partner earmarked for national airline so far
● Names of potential investors cannot be released as negotiations not yet ‘mature’ enough
No strategic partner has yet been earmarked for Air Malta, and government is still looking at a wide variety of possibilities, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis told The Malta Independent.
Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said; “we have an obligation to leave no stone unturned, in the sense that we must do everything we can and explore all possibilities. This is always subject to due diligence. Obviously there are offers we are exploring which would be better than others as they fit well with the realities of Air Malta and with the model we have in mind for the airline.”
The minister said he could not release any names in terms of possible partners. “They (the negotiations) are not mature enough to be made public and I fear I would prejudice the negotiations.”
Asked whether there are any local investors involved as a possible choice at this stage, he said, “not to my knowledge, but as we have already said, we are not excluding local investment but we also believe in a strategic international investment, in the sense that the airline would be given access to procurement, scalability, a better network etc, but we do not exclude having a percentage of shareholding listed, but when the company is able to stand on its own feet, open to the public.”
“We cannot however, issue shares to the public when we are still helping the company stand on its own as I don’t think we would be responsible if we do that.”
The minister also guaranteed that government will keep a 51% stake in Air Malta.
Last January, the government said Air Malta and Alitalia had jointly decided to terminate the talks which would have led to Alitalia becoming a 49% shareholder in Malta’s national carrier. The two airlines had agreed that the current changing landscape in the airline industry was not ideal for such a transaction and that both airlines would concentrate on the current challenges without entering into a partnership together.
Turning to the jobs for workers, the minister said that last August, a commitment with workers, through the four unions was made, that even if there will be cuts, they will be done in a way that respects workers’ dignity. “Cuts will be done within the ambit of early retirement schemes and the agreements made with the workers.”
He said that there would not be any outright job cuts. “There are two options, early retirement schemes or absorption into other government jobs. Our guarantee of work, we have already said it and we are consistent.”