Davies ‘gambled’ with taxpayers money, pilots’ union boss says

Pilots union boss Dominic Azzopardi has rebutted claims made by Air Malta's CEO Peter Davies that Air Malta had achieved substantial savings on fuel hedging.

Azzopardi said that "Davies and his clan had gambled with taxpayers' money when he admitted that Air Malta hedged 79% of its fuel requirements at $108.75 for this financial year when fuel is currently being sold at roughly $97 a barrel".

Azzopardi said that "Davies confirmed what I had suggested: that Air Malta bought its fuel at a much higher rate than the price one would get it for today".

Pilots and Air Malta's management remain at loggerheads over the restructuring of the national airline. Recently, the airline said pilots wanted an increase in their annual salaries, while pilots say they are right in demanding an increase after having frozen their salaries for three years in a bid to assist the airline's restructuring.

Initially, Azzopardi's comments were made on Favourite Channel's Reporter in an extensive interview in which he reiterated his criticism of much of the restructuring programme for the airline, which has received €130 million in State aid.

Azzopardi once again mentioned the rebranding of the airline "which came at a very bad time", insisting that passengers using the airline were more interested in getting a good service - which definitely couldn't happen without adequate staff - then having modern and expensive groundhandling equipment.

"Investing in equipment is far less important than investing in staff. It makes no difference whether the stairs that were being used to climb to a plane are 30 years old or so as long as the equipment in question is constantly maintained," Azzopardi said.

The airline's CEO claims that some of the equipment that was replaced was around 30 years old.

According to the airline, the €3.5 million investment in new ground handling equipment and rebranding, which also includes aircraft repainting, were fundamental restructuring elements and justifiable. Meanwhile, 1.9 million was alos spent on the rebranding of the airline.

Azzopardi said that "Davies had justified his six-figure salary by stating that Air Malta had achieved substantial savings on fuel hedging. But that was then. Now things have changed. Air Malta is hedging at $108.75 when fuel is being sold for at a lesser amount. How is Davies going to justify this now?" Azzopardi added.

Azzopardi also said that Davies failed to mention the 10-euro online booking charge which in actual fact should have led to the airline making more profit.