Air Malta chief confirms airline will be replaced by end of year

Air Malta chairman David Curmi confirms that the national airline will be replaced, with the company set to lay off its 300 employees

Air Malta is set to shutter its doors by end of year, but will be replaced by a new airline
Air Malta is set to shutter its doors by end of year, but will be replaced by a new airline

Air Malta chief David Curmi has confirmed that the national airline will be replaced by end of year after the European Commission rejected a government request to inject millions of euro into the company.

According to the Times of Malta, Curmi said that the 300 employees working at Air Malta will be laid off but will be able to apply for work in the new airline.

He said the transition between the two airlines will be seamless for passengers, as the old company will continue operations until the new airline takes over.

MaltaToday reported last month that the Maltese government was planning to set up an alternative national airline to replace Air Malta.

The new airline would be rebuilt from scratch, with new conditions of employment in which employees, most notably airline pilots, will be expected to mirror the same conditions as in rival and competing airlines in terms of flying hours.

Finance minister Clyde Caruana in 2022 had already said that Air Malta required a capital injection “but when and how this will happen depends on the decision the European Commission will make.”

A year earlier, he warned that without the green light from Brussels, “Air Malta will not live. It will just have weeks to live.”

Air Malta has been passing through a painful restructuring process as government seeks the European Commission’s green light to shore up the airline.

Caruana had announced a voluntary employee transfer scheme in a bid to cut Air Malta’s workforce by half and save €15 million per year in wages.

Pilots were excluded from this latest exercise since Air Malta had sacked 69 pilots in the summer of 2020 after talks with the Airline Pilots Association broke down.

Government filed a formal state aid application in October 2020 in order to provide Air Malta with financial assistance after suffering a major hit during the pandemic.

Air Malta benefited from a state aid injection of €200 million back in 2012, and further capital injections from strategic asset sales to the government.

Even Air Malta’s slots in major airports were hived off to a separate government company, which leases them back to the airline as a way of safeguarding these slots should the company be shuttered.