Why this government will not manage to save Air Malta

Trying to kick-start itself back into action after summer, the government has launched a flurry of activities to tackle the most immediate issues or at least give the impression of doing so

Among the ‘To Do’ lists, along with law and order and, in a descending order, tackling inflation and the cost of living spiral, tackling corruption and governance issues, etc there is the ever-present issue of the national airline.

The government has been making all sorts of noises to tell the country it has a plan for Air Malta (whether that is Plan A or Plan B is immaterial at this point) and that if the airline’s employees keep refusing to leave the airline and accept the government’s offer of a job (with reduced pay) the government is even ready to close down the airline.

We, and the employees especially, have been round this hoop many times and nothing has ever happened – the airline is still there and its planes still fly, and the employees still have their jobs.

The government, whatever its colour, is unable to pull the plug. And since we’re in private sector country here, the government as ultimate owner is renouncing to the most important tool in the armoury of a private owner – to close down the company.

Other than that it can only tinker with things.

Let me undermine now what I have just written. There have been cases where a turnaround was indeed carried out, where an airline returned to profitability but these are rare cases, very rare.

And I say that such rare examples are unobtainable in Malta. This government is too committed to its supporters to be able to take the right decisions. This, one may say, has always been the bane of Air Malta, right from its establishment even when for some years it made a profit but that was because it operated in a monopolistic environment and the low cost airlines had not been created yet.

There were charter airlines and flights but they are in no way comparable to today’s low cost alternatives. For a long time Air Malta relied on a vast network of tour operators and even today still does so, as anyone who faces difficulties with online booking will find out.

The only two areas of operation where Air Malta functioned as well as other airlines was, thankfully, in flying the planes and in their maintenance. Otherwise the prices of flights are too high compared to other airlines. The back office support is non-existent and even the cabin crew look jaded and stressed – as they may indeed be.

Both governments now have had their turn at managing the airline, both attack the other for the airline’s faults, both claim they are very near a solution but both fail in their task. The watch creeps more and more near to the hour of midnight and the guy on top keeps whistling in the dark and hoping and praying he can kick the can further down the road without being blamed for the airline’s death.

And I can add a further reason why the government, this government, will be unable to save the airline – this government will not be able to save Air Malta because it understands nothing about economics and is leading the country to the cliff.

It is a government based on short-term solutions, great on sound-bites and spending like there’s no tomorrow, rewarding its incompetent appointees with huge salaries.

There is said to be an austerity drive but don’t believe it. Austerity is for the likes of you and me but not for people like the former brigadier who amassed a huge salary with a big pension but then cut down on free milk for the employees.

People like Karl Stagno Navarra gaily skip from an Air Malta post to another elsewhere and keep the perks while the Air Malta loader is told to take a cut. Or else ....