Air Malta at risk of bankruptcy.
The national airline directly owned by the Maltese government, which also connects Cagliari, risks closing its doors if it does not undergo cuts within a few months, with the staff that will have to be more than halved.
The company - much smaller than Alitalia but which shares a problematic and fragmented management with it - is currently losing 170,000 euros per day. The connection with Sardinia is considered among the least profitable together with Malaga, Ibiza, Casablanca and Bucharest.
Maltese Finance Minister Clyde Caruana announced that by the summer the workforce will drop from the current 890 to 420 in an attempt to save € 15 million. "We have to be very serious with this plan, which can easily be Air Malta's last chance," said the minister.
Last year the Maltese government asked the European Commission for permission to pump 290 million into the company's budget in derogation of the state aid ban, but after contacts with the Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager the executive of Valletta had to change course . For Vestager, Caruana said, the Commission "has lost faith in Air Malta because many promises have not been kept".
According to a summary published by the Times of Malta, the cuts plan, in addition to the reduction of 460 jobs, provides for six other key points: discontinuation of baggage handling; modification of the employment contract of the traveling staff (which currently must always complete the working day in Malta); waiver of long-range route plans, launched under the management of the former Minister of Tourism Konrad Mizzi (the pre-order with Airbus for 2 wide-bodies has been transformed into an option for 3 short-medium-range aircraft); act as a carrier on other European routes, with particular interest in Italy; develop the presence in the charter sector, to optimize the use of airplanes during the low tourist season. And even change the livery of the planes in favor of a cheaper one.
(Unioneonline / D)
