Air Malta CEO Joe Cappello not involved in airline restructuring talks with unions

Air Malta chief executive Joe Cappello is absent from the government team handling the airline’s restructuring talks with unions.

13 November 2010, 12:00am

1 min read

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech brushed aside the Times’ question, saying it could not have noticed the chief executive officer’s absence because the newspaper was not present for the meetings.

But Cappello confirmed his absence when contacted, insisting there was “nothing strange”. “The company has to have one spokesman in the talks and most of the issues being dealt with at the moment concern the relationship between the company and its shareholder, which falls in the chairman’s remit.”

“At this stage I do not see it strange that I am not present. There is nothing mysterious in this,” he insisted.

Cappello, who has been with the airline since 1976, is the second chief executive officer in Air Malta’s history, having been appointed in 2006 replacing Swiss Ernst Funk, who had been there for three years. Before 2002, the airline had no chief executive officer as such and the role was vested in the chairman.

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Oh I forgot to add glorified waiters too, to run an airline.

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Victor Vella is correct, since when does an airline company need airline pilots??? Have we discovered a New America or what???? Air Malta can always employ Nasa trained Monkeys and pay them peanuts and crates of Bananas. It would save millions of Euros and still fly planes, well sort of. Well, do you know what it need to run an Airline company Mr. Vella??? The answer is very simple, O'Level Standard pilots and glorified pilots only. No need of your PHDs, Diplomas and bla bla bla. Everything else can be outsourced. Hence the reason your ass is on fire. I'm off to peel meself a Banana. Uaaaaaaa

Alfred Galea •

Employee, if Capello's hands were tied then he should have resigned instead of going along with "having to please different masters"....tells me that this guy is not a CEO but a puppet of various masters. That's what REAL CEOs do, resign. As for the "turn the company around inside twelve months", wasn't THAT supposed to happen in 2004/2006??

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It is a pitiful situation and leaves questions ro be asked as to who is reponsible for the downfall? Mr Cappello is no superman and was only running the show after the failure of Mr Swiss Superman Ernst Funk who was appointed by the goverment and made a mess of the company! He was paid thouands of euros weekly and God knows what other perks and yet was never kept accountable for putting our national airline in the dark. Then there is the famous outsourcing and one wonders how much Air Malta is paying per call (not per booking) ? If it were outsourcing to a cheap labour force i dont think there would be questions asked. I will not get lost into other details pertaining this call centre but why noone has yet mentioned such a matter is beyond us!!!!

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had Mr Cappello been allowed to perform his duties as he knows how, Airmalta will not be in this mess. No one can do his job with his hands tied and having to please different masters. The problem is that to perform its social obligations, Airmalta has been forced, and incredibly is still being forced, to operate unprofitable routes, and putting excess capacity on others. Then, the same people who are ordering this, point the finger and accuse Airmalta of operating at a loss!!! Shedding staff will not he enough. Letting Airmalta operate commercially, and with common sense and experience , and without the lofty theories currently being implemented by some people who are living in cuckooland, will turn the company around inside 12 months.

Alfred Galea •

Capello comes out ahead no matter what. He don't give a rat's ass, he's just thinking about retiring with a diamond handshake and a lifetime pass to anywhere KM flies.