Full circle for Air Malta: Last flight from Heathrow same as first

More than five decades since its inception, Air Malta’s fate will end the same way it started – a London flight departing from Heathrow. 

Flight KM103, with Captain Kevin Camilleri at the helm and Glen Fenech as First Officer, landed at Malta International Airport for the last time in the early hours of Sunday. 

Almost poetically, the first Air Malta flight on 1 April 1974 was an inbound flight from Heathrow.  

The last flight officially leaving Malta was KM614 to Rome.

History of the national airline  

Air Malta was formally set up on 1 April 1973 when parliament approved a resolution to set up a national airline. 

The company started operations with two Boeing 720B aircraft leased from Pakistan International Airlines. The first scheduled services saw Air Malta fly to the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Libya. 

Air Malta was Dom Mintoff’s brainchild in a Malta that was industrialising and finding its feet economically ahead of the withdrawal of British forces in 1979. A critical Opposition gave the fledgling airline short shrift at the time, branding its aircraft ‘birds of lead’ in the belief that it will not survive for long. 

But in 10 years the airline defied the Opposition’s prognosis and went on to purchase three aircraft of its own from Boeing and become an important cog in the tourism industry.  

Despite its crucial role, the airline became a glorified employment agency over the years for whoever was in government, with people close to the major parties finding well-paid jobs within the airline. 

Politicians on either side of the House have repeatedly tried to scapegoat each other for Air Malta’s collapse. From the ill-fated decision taken in the mid-1990s under a Nationalist administration to create a regional offshoot of Air Malta with its own aircraft to the Labour government’s decision to expand the network with unprofitable routes after 2017, every administration has driven a nail in the coffin. 

The once successful airline whose name has been etched in the national psyche experienced a slow and painful decline over the past three decades. 

Attempts to rescue the airline proved ineffectual and when the European Commission last year refused to accept a fresh government bailout there was no runway left for Air Malta to perform another take-off. 

Government was forced to chart a new course that would see Air Malta cease operations once and for all and be replaced by a new national airline.

How will KM Malta Airlines operate? 

The new airline will eventually employ 375 people, Clyde Caruana had said in October, giving all employees on Air Malta’s books the chance to apply for a job. 

And in a bid to avoid the excesses of the past, Caruana said the work contracts offered by the new national airline will reflect the market conditions for comparable airlines. 

The turnaround will see the new national airline operating on 17 routes, which are deemed to be profitable, with one new route to be added three years down the line. 

The first flights of the new airline will commence on 31 March 2024 in a fresh start that comes with the minister’s commitment that politicians will not be allowed to interfere in its workings. 

So, farewell Air Malta – it was nice flying with you – and welcome KM Malta Airlines.

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