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Matthew Vella
Air Malta has informed staff based at London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 in a letter that their positions were under review following a board decision to outsource the customer service operation at Heathrow to KLM.
MaltaToday is informed that staff is liable to be offered other roles and responsibilities within the head office in Putney. The role of station manager will be retained bringing the staffing levels down from six to one.
According to British media reports, staff appeared to be “completely demoralised over the action stating that between them they had served the company for in excess of 100 years”.
The decision is believed to be part of a “far-reaching range of cost cutting exercises” aimed at bringing the airline into profitability.
An Air Malta spokesperson said the airline was rationalising its operations at all overseas locations, in line with its overall cost-reduction programme “whilst ensuring that its service level to clients is not reduced”.
“Air Malta will close its Heathrow office but will keep its ticket desk open through an agreement with KLM which has been Air Malta’s handling agent at Heathrow for the past 25 years and which is experienced and professional enough to handle Air Malta's traffic.
“Whereas Air Malta’s ticket desk used to be open to service the clients during specific times depending on the timings of the flights, the KLM desk is operated on a continuous basis which means that clients do not have to wait for the desk to be manned.
“Moreover, with the imminent introduction of e-ticketing the demand for ‘on departing sales’ is expected to reduce considerately.”
The spokesperson said the airline would be retaining a dedicated representative at Heathrow to assist passengers and safeguard the interest of the airline.
Another Air Malta station manager is situated at London Gatwick, where customer relations and sales are already farmed out to KLM, although Gatwick flights comprise mainly of tour operator and charter business.
The airline’s spokesperson said Air Malta’s Heathrow desk is primarily a service location as most tickets would have already been prepaid elsewhere and then picked at Heathrow.
The airline would not disclose what costs it expected would be recouped from shutting down the Heathrow desk and how much KLM would be paid for its services.
The spokesperson added that many airlines the size of Air Malta and larger, did not have their own ticketing facilities, considering the nature and volume of their business. Air Malta already has similar arrangements at other airports including Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Gatwick, Paris and Manchester.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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