Further industrial action being contemplated by the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) could cost the beleaguered airline as must as €575,000 a day in the worst case scenario, an internal risk assessment carried out by the airline seen by this newspaper reveals.
ALPA and Air Malta’s management remain at loggerheads over the negotiation of a new collective agreement, since talks have been delayed as the national airline continues to thrash out a takeover agreement with Alitalia that would see the Italian carrier become the Maltese carrier’s strategic partner.
In the meantime, the airline’s pilots are turning up the pressure on Air Malta and are threatening to escalate matters from their current ‘dress down’ industrial action, which has seen them turning up for work without their jackets and caps. Such escalation, ALPA has warned, could take the forms of delaying flights or suspending services altogether.
But should the pilot’s industrial action go full scale, the financial ramifications for Air Malta could be catastrophic – coming as it would in the middle of the peak season and at a particularly sensitive stage of negotiations with Alitalia.
According to a risk assessment drawn up by Air Malta, the fallout from full industrial action could wreak havoc on the airline’s faltering finances.
In one of Air Malta’s risk scenarios, a full day’s strike by flight personnel on a very busy day, such as a Sunday in July, would cost the airline €574,414 – per day.
According to industry insiders speaking with this newspaper, if such action were taken on two busy days – impacting its bottom line by over €1.1 million – it could very well deliver a fatal blow to the ailing airline.
Although not as dire a threat as a full day’s strike, other scenarios contemplated by Air Malta would at the very least deliver serious wounds to the company.
In another scenario, in which flight personnel refuse to operate one particular morning flight such as the KM100/101 return flight to and from Heathrow, Air Malta would be impacted by a cost estimate of €50,378.
In another more watered down scenario in which flight personnel would delay one morning flight by two hours, the airline would suffer a monetary hit of €18,290.
By far, the first scenario contemplating a full day’s strike on a busy day is the most damaging, but the multiplier effect should such action be repeated could be crippling for the struggling airline, as would repeated industrial action in the second and third scenarios.
What the airline has not accounted for in its risk assessment is the probable loss of custom from potential clients in the aftermath of any such strike.
Dangerous move - minister