Losing €37 million is a sign of hope

When he talked to The Times, he had resolved to hide this fact from the rest of the press.

He stated some day at the end of December - always to The Times of course - that the airline would be reporting a loss of €37 million.

No official statement was issued after this quote. No whisper from Tonio Fenech, and not a sentence from the Prime Minister.

In March, eight months before this date, Mr Peter Davies - the CEO at Air Malta - was also reported in The Times stating that he airline would be losing €36 million. I am not quite sure which figure is right. But anyhow, €36 and €37 million should not make a difference to the Maltese tax-payer.

The Times has become the government mouthpiece, and what a sweet coincidence to have the Chairman at Air Malta also acting as director at The Times.

Mr Farrugia revealed this fantastic loss in The Times 'as an indication of hope'.

I had failed to comment on Farrugia's ridiculous statement but if this is an indication of hope, really I must be missing something. Somewhere in my boggled mind, I have missed the plot.

If €36 million loss is a ray of hope then really we need to revisit our understanding of good business sense.

Traditionally, auditors and bank managers tend to warn people about the dangers of living beyond their means. Not matching expenditure with revenues is not taken lightly by banks.

But throwing away public money is seemingly no problem at all.

Mr Farrugia has of course said nothing of the financial targets of Mr Davies and Mr Saunders. 

Farrugia is expecting all of us to sit down and give the two gentlemen and their posse of highly paid foreign staff more time to come forward with results.

I am afraid there is no time left. The truth is that their pace of progress has been slow, and not at all impressive.

Well, if the other press, namely The Times headed by Steve Mallia and Adrian Hillman, choose to look the other way as this national airline continues to lose money, we can assure our readers that we will be monitoring their progress and achievements.

Interpreting a ray of hope in a €37 million loss must be quite a feat.

I do not share Mario de Marco's (of The Times) and Alan Caruana's (Tonio Fenech's highly paid consultant) blind faith in Davies and Saunders. Neither do I believe that Air Malta can be saved by these guys just because they are paid hefty and exaggerated sums. 

Neither do I believe that we should save Air Malta at all costs. 

Perhaps it would be better to start from scratch. It is not Air Malta we should be saving, but our money and our tourism.

A story that appears in this newspaper gives an interesting angle to the kind of people that are being recruited by Davies and Saunders. Truly impressive, I must say. And of course the government has obviously washed its hands of ever solving this problem. 

Davies and Saunders have tried their very best to neutralise the media, this medium in particular. Evidently they think that by simply inviting someone for lunch they would have solved their problem with the 'nasty' media.

Which is why I have refused to accept a lunch invite by this highly paid functionary, who earns €9,615 a week.

I know most local editors love to travel and eat at the expense of government and private companies. Some give the impression that they will not miss an opportunity for a freebie. Perhaps one particular editor, Steve Mallia, can tell us how many freebies he has accepted and receptions he has been to in one year.

Davies and Saunders give me the impression (perhaps I am wrong) that Maltese are some awkward and backward natives with no idea of what happens next. That they are unable to take control of themselves and are living in the backwaters of civilisation.

But it is not only foreign appointed natives who think that we are a bunch of morons.

Sharing this habit of looking down at people is not limited to folk at Air Malta. I reach this conclusion after I received a Saint Emilion Grand Cru as a Christmas gift from Steve Mallia.

Some weeks ago I asked the Valletta police (they have not even issued a citation), to proceed against the Sunday Times editor for having suggested in his leader that I choose to write against individuals or companies according to whether they have given this newspaper adverts.

Needless to say, I will be returning the bottle.

As the old Trojan saying goes: "Beware Greeks bearing gifts."