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In his counter-reply to the Leader of the Opposition’s response to the budget speech, the Prime Minister accused Dr Alfred Sant of destructive criticism and behaviour unbecoming. Dr Gonzi highlighted instances where according to him, Dr Sant was destructive at times when it was his duty to offer constructive criticism which, again according to Dr Gonzi, is always encouraged and welcomed by his government. The period when government was working to find a substitute to take over the helicopter operation to Gozo was one of the highlighted instances.
I cannot ignore the faulty argument brought forward by Dr Gonzi to defend his administration’s decision to “solve” the long-outstanding problems of the Malta-Gozo airlink.
With simple terms and a few figures the picture of the current operation will show with tangible proof that we are now paying far more for far less. Moreover it will not be amiss to state that the decision was only meant to serve as a temporary political solution which, as predicted, resulted in a rapid decrease in passengers’ patronage.
From its inaugural day in March up to end of September 2005, the new service attracted a meagre number of 5,966 passengers which also included a good number of free promotional tickets given to the travel trade and media representatives which represents 19.61 per cent of the 30,472 that Malta Air Charter carried during the same period the year before. With a drastically reduced winter schedule eliminating night flights, the number of passengers will, unavoidably dwindle even further.
In the likely event that the traffic maintains the current trend, by the end of February 2006 the helicopter will not carry one passenger more than 8,047. With all the negative elements that Dr Gonzi’s administration attributed to the previous service, during the same period the year before, Malta Air Charter carried more than 42,000 passengers. And that was not a good year.
Malta Air Charter operated with two helicopters configured to carry 25 passengers each. Before it started to cut down on costs it used to operate with three. With a 24-hour service 12 months a year the operation was costing Air Malta an annual loss of circa Lm120,000, Lm2.85 per passenger but not taking into account the good opportunity which the service was giving Air Malta to gain more of the international traffic going to Gozo.
The present one helicopter operation, which carries only 11 passengers at an exorbitant fare, will cost the taxpayer more than Lm167,000 per year in indirect government subsidy or Lm20.75 for each passenger flying one way.
The government subsidy is inclusive of a hefty MIA discount on passenger handling charge. MAC was charged more than Lm80,000 per year whilst the new operators only Lm9,000. No less than 16 government employees are on secondment at no charge to the new company which at a conservative estimate are costing the taxpayer more than Lm96,000 per year.
It does not need the brains of high-calibre economists to conclude that a subsidy of well over Lm41.50 on each passenger flying by helicopter to stay in Gozo is anything but a fair and viable proposition. Ironically however, our Prime Minister, supposedly aided by professional economists of high calibre, still insists that the agreement with the Spanish Company was a positive one . And Alfred Sant has a negative attitude! Dr Sant is a born realist who does not believe and propagate imaginary pies in the skies.
Charles J Buttigieg
Mellieha
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