Updated | Economy Minister accuses pilots of attempting to 'hijack' Air Malta

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri says Malta will still have an Air Malta, and 'a strong one' as he criticises pilots' intransigence at a time of emergency

The national airline wants to lay off 108 of its 134 pilots
The national airline wants to lay off 108 of its 134 pilots

Updated at 6:40pm with reaction from pilots' union to Economy Minister's comments

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri promised that Malta “will have an Air Malta and a strong one” on Friday, as he accused pilots of trying to hijack the airline.

Insisting that the government would not allow this to happen, he pointed out that the airline had other employees, besides pilots, to safeguard.

The national carrier, which was effectively grounded by the outbreak of COVID-19, and its pilots are currently engaged in a dispute over a minimum income offered to all employees. All commercial flights in and out of Malta were suspended on 21 March, apart from humanitarian, cargo and repatriation services.

Air Malta has made over 100 pilots redundant after ALPA refused to discuss a €1,200 monthly salary in a bid to reduce the impact of the pandemic’s ‘zero-revenue’ situation on the airline, whose flights have been grounded

"It is unacceptable that a particular section tries to dictate the operation of a company. Air Malta is not responsible for just the pilots,” Schembri told a press conference this morning.

"I will not accept that a group of people hijack Air Malta. I am not pleased with the situation but the company will not be brought to its knees because of a group of people," Schembri said. 

Air Malta would have to adapt its commercial strategy once the pandemic is over like other airlines around the world had, the minister added.

Air Malta plans to let go of 108 out of its 134 pilots after talks between it and the union failed to reach an agreement on how to reduce payroll costs in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Schembri said this morning that he had been approached privately by some of the pilots who disagree with their union’s stance of refusing the offer of €1,200 as a basic monthly income.

Earlier this week, the airline accused pilots' union ALPA of an "appalling display of force" as it attempted to strong-arm the airline into giving a higher pay to pilots "at a time of virtually zero revenue" for the company.

Economy Minister's words 'unfortunate' - pilots' union

In a reaction on Friday, ALPA said Schembri's statement implying that pilots "have hijacked the airline" were "unfortunate."

"In reality, Air Malta flight and crew have always carried out their duties as assigned by the company with diligence, efficiency and effectiveness," ALPA sia.d

The union notes that its requests for a meeting with Air Malta CEO Clifford Chetcuti had not been met with any reply.

"The company has not only refused to entertain ALPA’s requests for a meeting, but instead resorted to informing DIER [the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations ] on the 15th April 2020, to slash the 30-day effective consultation period required prior to enforcing collective redundancies, to just 15 days and implied the DIER to be allowed to lay off 80% of its pilots by Tuesday, the 21st April 2020," ALPA said.

"This confirms Air Malta management’s real intent, to not engage with the workforce, but to forcibly extract an agreement of a permanent nature as indicated in a communication to ALPA and the Union Of Cabin Crew where any doubts as to management’s bad faith in the negotiations, were laid to rest," it added.