Air Malta mum on cost of rebranding exercise

With the event dubbed 'Flying the Pride of Malta', Air Malta is set to relaunch the airline's brand and propel the company to financial sustainability.

The new rebranding comes a week after Air Malta Chairman Louis Farrugia proudly announced that Air Malta had only lost '€30 million.' A staggering amount considering the declarations by the highly paid foreign executives that they would start turning the airline around.

Earlier this year, Air Malta revealed that it had engaged the services of FutureBrand to rebrand the company. The international agency was apparently appointed directly without any public tendering call.

FutureBrand is part of the MCCann World Group, a multinational marketing company, having offices in over 25 countries worldwide. The only airline branding that FutureBrand cites on its website is Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Air Malta has so far refused to reveal the cost of the re-branding exercise saying the information is commercially sensitive. It is not known how the company was engaged by Air Malta, however reacting to a report which appeared in the media, FutureBrand said it was considering outsourcing and sub-contracting part of its work to local companies to try and pacify some of the leading marketing agencies that feel hurt and angry at Air Malta's decision to dismiss them completely for any work in this area.

Evidently direct appointments violate the purchasing rules and regulations in place at Air Malta. Questions sent to Air Malta last week on the cost of the re-branding exercise and the manner in which the companies involved were chosen remain unanswered.

A spokesperson for the airline told this newspaper that questions on the re-branding exercise will be answered during a press conference to be held after today's event.

The event's title 'Flying the Pride of Malta' sounds uncanningly similar to the decision taken by low-cost carrier easyJet to rename an Airbus A319 'Pride of Malta' to celebrate its maintenance partnership with SR Technics.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Saturday, ALPA, the pilots' association, said it will boycott the event.

"Invitations to this "once in a lifetime experience" "with plenty to drink and eat" have been issued to all Air Malta employees with another event planned the following day for all stake holders and business partners," ALPA's secretary Captain Chris Vella said.

"In the current financial situation ALPA feels that such expenses are highly inappropriate and these funds could have been put to better and more productive use. Given this scenario ALPA has instructed all it's members not to participate in this event."

The pilots said that they would be looking forward to attend such events "when the company returns to profitability and is in a better and more stable financial situation".

The association also reiterated that Air Malta had once again failed to consult and involve the pilots over the airline's restructuring process.

In reaction to the pilots' statement, Air Malta accused the executive committee of the union of "failing to rise above the canopy and look at the big picture".

It however added that it was "pleased to note that the same Executive is finally becoming more sensitive to the precarious financial situation of the Company".

Air Malta said it now expected ALPA to reconsider its demands made to the company as part of its discussions.

"Its demands should be brought more in line with the situation currently at hand with a view to ensure that Air Malta returns to profitability and a more stable financial situation," the airline said.

Earlier this month, Air Malta announced a €30 million operating loss.

Airline chairman Louis Farrugia said the year's performance was adversely affected by €21 million in total losses, namely incurred by increased fuel prices of €17 million and €4 million losses from the reduction in flight capacity.

As part of its restructuring programme, which was given the green light by the European Commission, Air Malta plans to break even by 2014 and return to a state of profitability by 2015.

In an interview with MaltaToday, Farrugia said that giving the airline a facelift and creating an identity, which differentiates it from other airlines, are pivotal in turning the airline's fortunes around. However, the cost of giving the airline a new identity remains unknown.