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Air Malta pilots’ requests for company accounts denied
Pilots’ union ALPA says many questions over national airline’s restructuring still unanswered.
Airline Pilots Association president Dominic Azzopardi said his unions requests for the Air Malta accounts and business plan, had always been denied.
Air Malta pilots have insisted that the national airline continues to show little transparency in the way it is carrying out a €230 million restructuring programme, after the ALPA union was denied the company's accounts.
Airline Pilots Association president Dominic Azzopardi said his union's requests for the Air Malta accounts and business plan, made since the setting-up of the steering committee chaired by finance minister Tonio Fenech, had always been denied.
Azzopardi said claims by chief executive Peter Davies that the airline will breakeven by 2014 had to be "backed up by concrete and transparent facts and not by a mere look in the eye".
"We feel the only major restructuring decisions implemented so far, were just those needed to satisfy the European Union's restructuring regulations," Azzopardi said.
"Decisions should be based on the long-term viability of the company, not just the short term. We don't want to see Air Malta end up tragically like Malev and Spanair."
Azzopardi said ALPA wanted to know what savings were achieved in a series of decisions taken by the airline, amongst them moving offices to Malta International Airport's SkyParks business centre, instead of leasing back a single block at the old headquarters.
Azzopardi also said the union wants to know what savings were made on MIA charges, why cargo charges were still "ridiculously low", why no agreement had been made for cheaper Libyan fuel, and whether routes to African countries were on the cards.
"As a result of this lack of transparency, ALPA has no structured way of verifing that Air Malta's management decisions and business plan are in line with the restructuring plan as agreed by the steering committee," the ALPA president said.
Air Malta has already taken issue with comments by ALPA over the union's frustration over decisions being taken without consulting unions, such as the move to occupy two floors at the Malta International Airport's SkyParks business centre.
The airline is reducing employee numbers by around 500, who are being released through a staggered plan. Over 300 employees have already left the company. The airline received 1,043 applications from 309 employees for the 177 internally advertised positions.
Air Malta has said opening of new routes was not part of the airline's immediate plans. "The turn-around strategy sees the airline first fix its financial position by reducing costs, re-negotiate contracts, focus on core activities, and keeping management accountable. Only then can it optimise and exercise strategic options like opening up new routes."
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KM still needs to come clean with ALPA, and the general public that support the airline with their cash. We were advised that restructuring included reassessment and renegotiation of purchase contracts for goods and services, intimating that gross largesse had been the case. We need to know the results of these efforts in order to keep supporting the airline. Concrete answers would give credit, if merited, to KM's foreign negotiators. From the taxpayer's point of view, it is nonsensical to dispose of one's offices, and not re-lease it from an associated entity (the main shareholder), but lease from another private property owner. What gives?
