Air Malta will still employ new workers to maintain employee levels, Finance Minister clarifies

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has clarified previous comments on the Air Malta workforce, saying the company will maintain an optimum workforce capacity of 375 employees.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Caruana said that Air Malta only needs 375 workers to carry out operations with the eight aircraft in its fleet.

In light of this, Air Malta will not hire more employees over and above this level, but would still recruit workers to make well for any employees who have left the company.

Caruana made the clarification after media reports indicated that the company will not hire any more workers at all.

The national airline embarked on a restructuring process in 2022, which saw the company workforce whittled down from over 1,000 employees to the 375 workers employed currently.

As part of this restructuring process, Air Malta staff were given options to work in the public sector or take a lump-sum early retirement pay-out.

Workers who accepted the early retirement scheme enjoy sums varying between €40,000 and a reported €300,000. The exact sum each worker will receive depends on how long they had been working with the company.

Caruana said that workers opting for the early retirement scheme cannot remain a worker with Air Malta, and so the company would have to hire more people to make good for the loss of workers below an optimum level.