Air Malta pilot given €573,000 golden handshake
12 Air Malta pilots opt for early retirement scheme, costing the airline €4.3 million.
28 May 2013, 12:00am
Jurgen Balzan
Jurgen Balzan
2 min read
An Air Malta pilot who opted for the early retirement scheme offered to the airline's employees last year, was granted €4,777 a month up to 2023.
The pilot will be paid a monthly sum up to his retirement age in 2023. Over a span of 10 years, starting from 2013, this adds up to a grand total of €573,240.
The early retirement scheme was launched in December 2012 and agreements were reached under the previous administration.
Tourism minister Karmenu Vella said that in total, 12 pilots opted for the early retirement scheme, which was offered to the airline's employees as part of its restructuring programme.
The payments issued to these 12 pilots sums up to around €4.3 million. In his reply to a Parliamentary question, Vella explained that eight pilots received €2,730,698, while another three pilots are in the process of taking the retirement scheme by the end of the year.
These three pilots will be receiving around €988,076, the minister said.
In 2012, Air Malta posted a loss of €30 million, after having received the European Commission's green light for a restructuring plan in which the airline must become profitable after receiving €130 million in state aid.
Air Malta's net loss for the financial year ended March 2013 is expected to total €28 million, however up to €10 million is attributable to one-time restructuring costs, such as termination payments to its employees.
The global figure includes operational costs of around €15 million as well as non-operational costs, including the restructuring costs.
The latter was part of the restructuring agreement reached last year with the European Commission, which was harshly criticised by the pilots' union, ALPA.
In October 2012, following protracted negotiations between the airline and the pilots, a collective agreement was signed, which saw the pilots receive a €4.5 million raise.
The collective agreement for 2012-2015 will see pilots get a raise of over 3% every year, cost-of-living allowance increase, for a total of €17,000 annually.
The revised scale system will see pilots and first officers' salaries capped at €90,800 for pilots and €58,200 for first officers. The capped salaries is hoped to produce a natural wastage of older and higher-earning pilots taking early retirement, and bring down the staff complement of 130 pilots.
Jurgen Balzan was a MaltaToday reported from 2011 to 2017.
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@ DavidA In fact you are right -- there are around 150 pilots with AIr Malta, which is completely insane! No wonder it can never make a profit -- and it never will with these people on board. Frankly I would shut it down and create a new airline since these people seem to have such a stranglehold on the company at the people's expense! New contracts will mean new rules and less pilots...
Joseph Pace •
Why are there 10 pilots for each plane?
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Why play the National Lottery when you can be an Airmalta pilot?!?!
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@ Charles Muscat Let's not be too harsh! A *glorified* bus driver! I mean, they don't actually fly the plane -- it's the computers that do all the work.
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Correction -- it's slightly worse than I just said. In fact these pilots will go and work for the competition, thus actively contributing to Airmalta's demise. And all sponsored by Airmalta itself -- and the taxpayer of course!
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Correction -- it's slightly worse than I just said. In fact these pilots will go and work for the competition, thus actively contributing to Airmalta's demise. And all sponsored by Airmalta itself -- and the taxpayer of course!
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Correction -- it's slightly worse than I just said. In fact these pilots will go and work for the competition, thus actively contributing to Airmalta's demise. And all sponsored by Airmalta itself -- and the taxpayer of course!
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@ chikku You are totally right. Whoever makes these decisions needs his head examined. Now, having paid this pilot half a million euros NOT TO WORK, he will go and work for the competition (Ryanair or some other low cost airline) for less money than he would have for Airmalta, and watch as Airmalta crashes and burns. Sometimes I think this country is beyond belief and beyond redemption.
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@city,
If I am not mistaken, this golden handshake deal was made last August (2012)...what my friend wanted to say is that everybody is still waiting for a change in direction/management/attitude...but as the famous line in il-Gattopardo goes, "Facciamo vedere che tutto cambia, affinchè nulla cambi"
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I don't understand why some people are given a fortune for not working. In other countries, if you get an education (to be a fighter pilot for example), you have to sign up to give 15 or 20 years service in the armed forces, because it is recognized that you get an education of high commercial value. Here, we give the education for free, a high paid job, and an enormous package when you quit or change jobs. Why? Is this justice for example for the many pensioners trying to get by on a few hundred a month?
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what a Joke!! 4.5million euros just for an early retirement!!and yet people of all ages are put in prison for not paying their taxes with good reason.How come the others did not resign, for that monthly wage I would have done the same RESIGN!!!!
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@Mike Litoris; nahseb habib siehbek rid jighdlek Vote Karmenu u nikxfu lil Tonio !!! niskanta kif l-ghamad li ghandkom ma jhallikom taraw xejn car, Taf meta sar dak l-agreement ?
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Not bad for a bus driver.
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Kellhom iggibu wiehed barrani li jithallas il-miljuni biex johrog b'idejat bhal dawn ?
Ahjar sab CUC MALTI, Tonio Fenech ghax konna nohorgu b'irhas zgur!
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Grima Karm i hope you are aware that it was Tonio Fenech as minister responsible for air malta who approved the 4.5 million increase in the pilot's salary and was also Tonio Fenech who approved the early retirement schemes. Karmenu Vella had nothing to do with either of these episodes.
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Grima Karm i hope you are aware that it was Tonio Fenech as minister responsible for air malta who approved the 4.5 million increase in the pilot's salary and was also Tonio Fenech who approved the early retirement schemes. Karmenu Vella had nothing to do with either of these episodes.
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Money, no problem- when the taxpayer is footing the bill.
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A friend of mine who works there said:
Vote Karmenu, get Tonio...
:(
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I dont think its any of your business who this fortunate pilot is josephgrechattard !!
I dont think there is any need for anyone to know that to become a pilot takes lots of studying , qualifications, responsibility etc.
Pilots all around the world have very good salaries for the service they give....ask emirate airline pilots for example...so whether a golden handshake or not.....am sure this pilot like all others deserve to have a decent salary..
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Things, bad things seem to keep happening at Air Malta, and all at the TAX PAYER's expense. It took Air Malta and ALPA four long years to sign a contract. That was the same week that an Air Malta scheduled flight was delayed 35 minutes in Milan to accommodate Pilot Azzopardi, the President of Alpa (Pilots Union)and his family because they showed up late for the flight. That case is still under investigation. The reduction of half the staff and now this comforting news of spending €4.3 million for pilots retirement again at the TAX PAYER's expense. My point is to privatize Air Malta and spare the TAX PAYER this suffering. Not everybody is a pilot and can receive this kind of money at the TAX Payer's expense. Privatize Air Malta before it ruins the TAX PAYER and itself in the process.
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L-Onor. Evarist Bartolo ghamel platu ghax l-Onor Tonio Fenech ircieva,forsi kontra qalbu u biex ma jiksiriex,Arlogg tal-Lyre, li jiswa 1400 euro, u l-Onor Karm Vella qisu qed jghid xi storja helwa ta' kif il-piloti qieghdin jitfghu l-Air Malta fl-abbiss u qisu ma qed jigri xejn. Onor. Vella ara jekk kienx hemm underboard hand greasing biex hadu din il-diamond handshake li l-anqas propju il-ministru responsabbli ghall-Air Malta qatt ma ghad xi darba johlom li se jiehu.
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Who is this fortunate pilot?
