KM Airlines will launch legal dispute against pilots’ union over industrial action

KM Airlines has informed the Airline Pilots Association it will take legal action against it over this week’s industrial action.

In a letter signed by the airline’s CEO David Curmi, the company claims industrial actions by the pilots’ union breaches contractual agreement.

The industrial dispute comes less than two years after KM Malta Airline was born on the ashes of the former state airline, Air Malta, which had to be shut down following massive losses. KM is wholly owned by the Maltese government.

The industrial action was ordered on Friday by the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) and the measures came into force on Monday morning. Pilots will cut down on time and energy saving measures that are expected to cause delays at the airport.

The industrial action appears to result from a breakdown in communication between the airline and the union over members’ safety and well-being. Among the issues raised was the method by which a pilot can lose their licence when disciplinary action is brought against them.

The alleged legal breach stems from ALPA members to engage with SkyBreathe – a fuel management system. The airline in its email to the union said the system incurred a direct cost of €250,000.

“This investment now remains unutilised and effectively on hold, due to ALPA’s unofficial instruction to its members not to cooperate with or use SkyBreathe at an individual pilot level,” the letter reads.

Such action, the company argues, is a “clear breach” of pilots’ obligations.

Minister Clyde Caruana, who is responsible of the airline slammed the directives when questioned by MaltaToday earlier this week, blaming it on what he described as pilots’ “greed”.

In comments to MaltaToday, Caruana said it was incomprehensible that pilots should resort to such measures less than two years after government agreed to honour a historic obligation on pay-outs to retiring pilots that would run into millions of euros. The vast majority of pilots at KM Malta Airline previously worked with Air Malta and were expected to retire within four years, at the end of which they will take home a “golden cheque”.

The move was also criticised by the hotels lobby, calling the industrial action irresponsible, unjustified, and harmful to the national economy.

The Malta Chamber acknowledged the right of workers to express their concerns but asserted that such issues must be resolved through “mature and constructive dialogue around the table”.