Tourism Minister says government will stick to Air Malta restructuring plan

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said that the government was keeping all options open in the issue of strategic partnerships for rescuing national airline Air Malta.

Air Malta needs to search for a strategic partner, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat admitted on Reporter earlier this week.

He insisted that the government should remain a major shareholder of Air Malta as it did with Enemalta after selling 33% of the company’s shares to Shanghai Electric Power.

Muscat also explained that the government had every intention to stick to the restructuring plan initiated by the previous government a fact which was confirmed by Zammit Lewis at a press conference earlier today.  

Zammit Lewis added that the government was open to partnering with other airlines and that it was currently undergoing various procedures to decide what partnerships and conditions could be reached.

“They are two separate processes,” he said referring to the restructuring plan the previous government had agreed on with the European Commission, to save the company from bankruptcy.

“We have to stick to the restructuring process whether we like it or not,” he added, saying that he had made a management plan precisely to reach these aims.

Air Malta went through a massive restructuring imposed by the EU after the government saved it from bankruptcy in 2010 with a €52 million loan. Two years later the EU approved €130 million in State aid on condition that the airline was restructured. Air Malta almost halved its workforce, reduced the number of planes in operation and cut capacity.