Pilots ‘unhappy’ with how Air Malta restructuring is proceeding

The Airline Pilot's Association Malta (ALPA) has expressed its "disappointment" at how the restructuring within Air Malta is taking place.

"We are not being consulted on anything," ALPA president Dominic Azzopardi told MaltaToday. "We are simply informed of the decisions taken without giving us the opportunity to voice our opinion."

Azzopardi said that a typical case was the decision to move all offices to SkyParks without first consulting them.

He insisted that ALPA had the right to know what was going on: "The new management was brought on board with the premise that they would be generating more work. Instead, they have increased the expenses by introducing new uniforms as part of their rebranding.

"Yet, they haven't introduced advertising opportunities on the planes."

Azzopardi also said that while "the foreigners" were brought on board to carry out the restructuring, yet it had been a Maltese pilot who found a renting opportunity for one of Air Malta's planes.

He said that nothing has been done to increase the planes' seat capacity, despite talks that this would be carried out.

Azzopardi has long been insisting that the tariffs that Air Malta charges for the cargo it brings to Malta is too low. "The prices are so low, that it's like we're giving the service free of charge," he insisted.

The ALPA president also insisted that Air Malta should have adopted twice-a-day flights from Libya. "But the airline industry is too volatile which means that once an opportunity is missed, it is lost for good," he insisted.

Azzopardi went on to say that it didn't make sense that workers were given early retirement schemes, when at the same time Air Malta employed part-time workers to do their job.