The airline industry around the world is changing and changing fast. Carriers are banding together to pool resources as well as take of and landing slots in a bid to alleviate the burden of costs and to get, what is known in the industry as, bums on seats.

There is no doubt that something needed to be done to improve the fortunes of the national carrier. Air Malta might be close to stemming losses and breaking even on its own steam, but it cannot hope to be viable and profitable in the future without some form of partnership. It is funny how things come full circle.

Air Malta was set up under the stewardship of Dom Mintoff, who despite having a vision of an inward economy, decided to invest in tourism, and hence an airline to bring people to Malta.

Roll on to 2016, and a Labour government has made a forward thinking move in allying itself with Alitalia. But there is, as always in Maltese politics, a discrepancy in the way things worked out.

For years, the Labour Party in opposition was against any form of selling off part of the airline. Had it supported previous administrations in its efforts to do something similar, then Air Malta might have been in a much healthier position today.

The road ahead will be fraught with painful decisions. Alitalia is still losing money itself and is in restructuring mode after Etihad bought out a large stake. Most of the savings made to date were made by cutting down the airline’s workforce and enforcing more time and cost efficient measures.

No doubt, Air Malta will have to go through the same painful process, and this is where we need to ask what the human cost will be. Joining forces with Alitalia/Etihad will offer great opportunities. There will be plenty of routes to be snapped up – even with a code-share agreement.

It is a well known fact that Alitalia under-serves the southern half of Italy and this could be a great little earner for Air Malta, especially during the shoulder months when some of the fleet lies idle for periods of time.

This will allow greater connectivity for tourists wanting to come to Malta, as well as cashflow from regional flights that might operate in Italy with Malta stop-overs.

But at the same time, the government must ensure that Malta, and the people of Malta’s needs are serviced. We still need our national airline, and we need our airline to be an international carrier, especially in terms of profitable routes, and other routes which generate business in other forms and on other levels in the country.

The opposition would do well to get on board with this restructuring exercise which Air Malta needs if it is to survive in the long term.

That being said, it is also becoming abundantly clear that there are not many more assets that can be sold off.