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New Air Malta pilots on definite contract will not be renewed
12 Air Malta pilots receive letters informing them that contracts will not be renewed in 2011 just before their crucial vote.
7 July 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
Newly-trained pilots engaged with Air Malta just prior to the 2008 general elections, have been officially informed by the airline’s new management that their definite contracts will not be renewed.
Letters of termination from Air Malta’s policy planning thanked the pilots for their services and wished them luck.
The letters were received at the start of the week while the Air Pilots Association (ALPA) was voting on a possible industrial action to ground Air Malta flights unless management renegotiates contracts the airline has with the Malta International Airport.
Pilots who spoke to MaltaToday had already said the last batch of Air Malta trainee pilots were given definite contracts that would expire by 2011. But critics said they might be eventually be reappointed later when senior pilots retire.
The Labour party had previously pointed out that 12 new pilots were recruited by Air Malta prior to the 2008 general elections, on a definite contract after the airline funded their training at €70,000 each. At the time the airline’s chairman was Lawrence Zammit, who also was a member of the PN’s strategy team.
There are some 147 pilots on the Air Malta payroll.
The pilots’ threat of industrial action has been a game-changer for Air Malta. Grounding aircraft would have an instant effect on tourism during peak season – the industry is warning pilots not to take any dire measures.
Air Malta pilots, who earn between €72,000 and €120,000, had already accepted salary cuts back in 2004, which Air Malta said was money paid back to the company to aid its restructuring.
Air Malta also actively encouraged its pilots to apply for temporary placements with the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad and Libya’s Afriqiyah Airways, as winter business was being forecasted to be low. The measure was a cost-cutting exercise to relieve the national airline of some labour costs, while ensuring that the pilots would only be temporarily away from their normal duties.
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And talking to MaltaToday ALPA president Domenic Azzopardi said he was surprised to see that the news that Air Malta would be doing away with 30 pilots had been leaked to the press. He said he had been given the impression by the top management that this would be the case.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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The most disappointing fact of all this is that Government and Air Malta Board of Directors, Chairmen and senior management knew since 2003 about the state of the airline. Nothing was done except for the MOU and few other cost savings. Late last year the Government woke up to the pressures of EU and appointed auditors and management experts that have already costed the airline and tax payer millions of euros. Then who is responsible... Government, its Ministers, past Chairmen, top management. Could the Prime Minister hold someone accountable for all this. It's true what Bandi sang..... Pajjiz tal Mickey Mouse
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@Majjistru,
lol, I perfectly agree with your latter comment!
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Whether a pilot is trained by the airline or otherwise, the point is that Air Malta and Malta should not lose an asset. Frankly speaking, I think whoever is advising government is taking the easiest way out to simply sack people. For instance, should Air Malta experts try to lease the extra pilots under specific and stringent conditions whilst at the same time offer voluntary redundancy schemes especially to those who are over 50 years. In this manner, Air Malta would be holding on to an asset and at the same time, allow those at higher wages to have the so called golden handshake. It is very easy to sack people without even thinking whether they have other openings or opportunities. Mr Prime Minister please think
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Anonym, that is right... it is true that not all 12 pilots were ready to spend the amount without job guarantee and it is a pity that they made sagrifices and they ended up without a job. But everyone must bear in mind that the 50 to 70 pilots who spent Eur70,000 or so had no job guarantee either. So I would prefer be sponsored as the Eur70,000 would be paid by the company and not by the individual. Then the loss would be incurred by the company due to the standard short term planning. Mind you, the supermarket round the corner has had long term planning more than Airmalta and does not have ceo, chairman and board of directors!!!
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Crystal, as a potential pilot you should know better rather than throwing unfounded unprofessional comments.
Majjistru: what you are saying is perfectly reasonable. I would just like to point out that not all of the 12 pilots in question were ready to spend 70000 euros on a license without a job guarantee after finishing training.
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Anonym...dawk l mistoqsijiet mjr saqsihom lil min ghenek ghax ma nfurmakx sew"......
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Dear Crystal & anonym
It is another story spending Eur70,000 from your pocket for the training and losing the job. Airmalta sponsored 12 pilots x Eur70,000 itself and at least they will be giving the redundant pilots a licence worth Eur70,000. But what about those pilots who paid Eur70,000 from their own pockets? Whay type of compensation will AirMalta give them as AirMalta saved the expense of the training for 70 pilots x Eur70,000 or so. Money paid by the pilots themselves and their families!!! They wish they could have been sponsored but they did not have the benefit to be sponsored.
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Sour grapes!
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Sour grapes!
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Sour grapes!
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@ Crystal:
Again - misinformation - Larnaca till end of October - what then?
You can preach about your love for aviation in another context - that goes to a certain point: What if you were married, your wife had a career and you had a kid - would you love aviation more than your wife?
Enough said - these twelve pilots were deceived, in any light you see it.
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still a bonus that he got it for free.....and anyway, some of these pilots are now based in Larnaca and through Cyprus...imma hadd ma jsemmihom daw l affarjiet.....
If you reallly love aviation (like the hundreds out there) and have got the necessary skills ma toqodx tara xi stajt taghmel bil paga t engineer.........
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@Crystal:
Maybe if he was not offered a ten year bond of service after his training, he would not have accepted the 70000 euros you are so craving for "for free".
+ if one does not want to move away from family and friends, he might have not lost 3 years without his engineer's pay and experience.
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I know of someone who was employed by easyjet, left easyjet, paid for his training joined Air Malta, and now he's one of the candidates to be sacked.
Had you joined Air Malta, you would have been sacked too, so I suggest you take some camomile tea, it might release some frustration!
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Crystal, do you realise that out of 147 pilots there are a good 70 who paid for their training?
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@ anonym
looks you're a close relative of one of them! But I tell you again stop lamenting and feel lucky your son or relative got training costing 70,000 euro and more FOR FREE!!!
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@Crystal:
I can assure you that they knew nothing about the situation when they first joined in 2007 - the then former CEO Joe Cappello and other managers visited them at their training end 2008 encouraging them to maximise their studying efforts because they are the future of the company.
Remember most of them were already established as engineers before they joined and I doubt most of them would have taken the option of wasting 3 years and end up jobless in the end.
Please inform yourself before posting any useless and frustrated comments.
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Mr frustrated, I believe you should inform yourself properly before bluttering rubbish. I know of pilots, and it's not one or two but a lot of them, who forked out €100,000 to become pilots without any government subsidies unlike all University students in Malta. After joining Air Malta, they were bound for 10 years, some of them 12 years, are being subject to deductions of €200 a month, for "training with Air Malta", and now they are being exiled.
Just get informed!
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mhux hekk.......u jin inhallas l eluf biex namel il licenzja...........
Ma tantx andhom alfej igergru tafux ghax huma stess kienu jafu bis sitwazzjoni kif inhi
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@ EMPLOYEE
Tkomplix taqa fin nassa ta gonzipn u tipprova tifred lill haddiema ta l-AirMalta, int wiehed minnhom u xoghlok imdendel, jekk trid tispara spara lejn il-gvern li farrak din il-kumpanija mhux lill piloti. Il-motto ta gonzipn hu ifred u saltan!!
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@ human torch
"Nispera li dawn il Pilots xi darba jiftakkru x'possibilta ta xoghol offrilhom il PN!!!"
Il- haddiema kollha ta l-Airmalta (inkluzi il-piloti) ghandhom jirringrazzjaw lill gvernijiet Laburisti ta l-imghoddi li KELLHOM VIZJONI U WAQQFU L-AIRMALTA MINKEJJA IT-TFIXKIL KOLLU TAL-PN (tiftakruha l-ghajta ta l-ghasafar tac comb? u meta il-pn kienu iheggu lin nies biex isiefru mal BA ghax l-"Airmalta ma humiex safe"?) Il- haddiema ta l-AirMalta, specjalment il-piloti, ghandhom jiftakru li dan il-hmieg ta gvern korrott ilu 22 sena jghaffeg fl-AirMalta u dejjem uza lill din il-kumpanija politikament biex jakkwista il-voti, appunta managment nazzjonalist korrot li selah il-kumpanija u taw kuntratti lill shabhom tal qalba li nixxfu il-kumpanija finanzjarjament, dan biex ma insemmux hela ta miljuni kbar ta liri fl-RJ70s, u l-Azzurra Air. Gonzi missu jisthi, IRRIZENJA GHAX QAZZIZT LILL KULLHADD U QED TFALLI PAJJIZ.
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Blue coloured recruitments that where in necessary for the company prior to 2004 election saved these guys nearly 1 million in training and cost the company 1 million in training + wages since 2008.
Having said that the government is lacking responsibility towards its citizens. By laying them off he is asking themand their families and childrean to start a new life elsewhere because ETC will never find you a JOB in Malta as Pilot.
This s Exile and the PN should not send the message to any Maltese citizen to find a job abroad. Back to the 60s where people had to go to Australia to find a job and a decent income.
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What a waste of talent and resources. The Chairman who took the decision to offer these young pilots training and a definite contract must have known about the real situation in Air Malta. Perhaps this is why he himself bailed out before the aircraft crushed. How could he have been so politically blinded to play with people's lives in this way? Of course, others wil have to pay for these 'mistakes'.
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LUCKY??? What about being pulled out of your present job, kept out of your wage for 2 and a half years, being promised ten years of service thereafter, only to be thrown out of your job and exiled, together with your family, to go and work somewhere else?
Would you consider yourself LUCKY then?
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These pilots should feel lucky and say thanks to Air Malta for paying their training. They would definitely find a better job elsewhere!
But us tax payers have the right to know who made the mistake of training them. I don't think that in 2008 Air Malta needed these pilots if the company was already in the red.
0.8 million of dear tax payer's money down the drain! What a waste!! Where's the accountability!!
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The strike may or may not happen. It s up to the government. Alpa's request was never not to reduce pilots but to safeguard the pilots remaining and the company contracts such as those with MIA have to be terminated as even the jobs of those remaining will remain at stake with such contracts.
Government has up to next Saturday to act.
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Air Malta also actively encouraged its pilots to apply for temporary placements with the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad and Libya’s Afriqiyah Airways, as winter business was being forecasted to be low.
I was told that, in actual fact, it was ALPA who was finding temporary/permanent jobs for its fellow pilots. Up to a few months ago, pilots were told that their position was safe and that only the ones that were on a definite contract would loose their jobs.
Guess Air Malta just wanted to safe guard it's summer operation.
Uza e getta.
Joseph MELI •
AND THE CABIN CREW-DONT THEY HAVE A SAY IN ANY STRIKE ACTION?the actually number of TOTAL lost jobs has still inexplicably to be made public so now we have a new figure -which one is it- AS ITS ALL SPECULATION AT THE MOMENT
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Accarding to the TVM news, the dismissal of pilots have been reduced from 57 to "around" 30. Let us not forget that ALPA knew that they will only be hit by around 21 redundancies (already well taken care of), and had kept a low profile, not giving a shit sbout the other 500 workers.
It was only on the SAME day that the leaked report said that pilots shedoff would be 57, that they raised hell.
Now they have already taken back almost all they had lost. (around 30, could be anything between 25-30 no ?) and I would bet all I have that they would go back to the original number.
Sorry guys and bloggers, for going against the tide, but I was never under any illusion that they were doing it for the company.
Mark my words, the strike WILL NOT HAPPEN.
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Nispera li dawn il Pilots xi darba jiftakkru x'possibilta ta xoghol offrilhom il PN!!!
Joseph MELI •
It would appear that DEFINITE when applied to job terminolgy or timeframe has a whole new meaning -rather similar to GUARANTEED when preceeding job!
