The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, the lobby group whose membership covers almost all of Malta's hotels and tourism-related businesses, wondered out loud yesterday whether Air Malta is "shutting up shop by stealth". This was after the national airline announced that it will close down its Manchester route in April, having already ceased to fly the Frankfurt leg which was much in demand by people in transit to other airports. The hotels association is particularly upset because its board held a meeting with Air Malta just two days before the Manchester route decision was announced, and they were not even given so much as a hint of it. And no Air Malta director was present for that meeting, either, the association said.

The tourism minister, Edward Zammit Lewis, whose portfolio of responsibilities includes the dying national airline, responded by saying that Air Malta has pulled out of these two routes to save money - his exact words being "commercially viable decisions". But as the hotels association said, the whole point of Air Malta is that it is the national airline and not just another airline flying the Malta route. But the tourism minister said that Air Malta is projected to lose €2 million (over an unspecified timeframe) if it continues to fly to and from Manchester. Even as he flounders in confusion over how to save the airline from bankruptcy or get somebody to buy it and keep it running, Zammit Lewis took the opportunity of taking a swipe at his predecessors. "The government is determined to wipe out the bad decisions taken under the previous administration, while also taking important decisions in an aviation scenario that is ever more competitive and aggressive."

It looks from where I'm sitting that the only thing they're going to wipe out is Air Malta itself.

The hijacking

Last week's would-be hijack - I struggle to call it an actual hijack - is a story that is set to grow and grow. There was an almost instinctive general consensus that there was something very odd about the whole affair, and there was nothing politically motivated about that opinion. In fact, the leader of the Opposition and other senior officials of the Nationalist Party communicated their satisfaction that all came off well, suggesting that they have absolutely no intention of challenging the government about the peculiar nature of events - which is exactly what they should be doing right now. In its eagerness to be seen as positive and cooperative - the very opposite of what it should be right now - the Opposition has painted itself into a corner where it cannot suddenly say, "Hmmm, all these people are speculating about whether it was a real hijack or not. Some of the things they're pointing out seem valid. Maybe we'd better go for the government's jugular on this one."

If, as it looks like, there is very much more to this 'hijack' than meets the eye, then this is a truly serious situation we have got on our hands.

There's something I've noticed - other political observers have noted the exact same thing - about Joseph Muscat. He cannot resist dropping a clue that gives the game away, an indicator of what is to come. It is as though, in his excitement at his own cleverness and wonderful secret information which is going to surprise as all, he simply cannot contain himself and must let loose a 'here, take that' remark that will show us he knows more than we do while not letting us know what. And it is only in hindsight that we are then able to piece the information together.

When challenged about Keith Schembri's illness and absence, at a Crane Currency event a couple of weeks ago, Muscat said, with a dead-give-away, self-satisfied smirk, eyes lighting up with secret pleasure, "Keith Schembri will be back at work very, very soon". And he said it with emphasis on the "very, very soon", his expression changing at that point, clearly implying that Schembri would be back for a specific event and that we would see him at this event. Well, Schembri's first public appearance in three months was at the press conference about the 'hijack', last Friday. I immediately tied his otherwise inexplicable presence there with Muscat's "very, very soon" at the recent Crane Currency press call, and said to myself, "Right, this isn't a real hijack and Muscat hasn't been able to resist showing us that his bestie Keith Schembri - Malta's second Mr Libyan Business Network after John Dalli - played a significant part in it, which is why he wheeled him out just as he did at the Crane Currency press conference back in September. So whatever complicated fraud may have been perpetrated here, and for whatever purpose, we have to start off from the premise that it serves Libyan business contacts of Schembri's. And then take it from there."

This is a reasonable assumption to make. Thousands of people, and not just your bog-standard conspiracy theorists, have read the clues that there was nothing normal about this 'hijack'. Now they are looking for the motive. I think the biggest clue is in the presence of the usual suspects, minus Konrad Mizzi who would have had trouble explaining his presence there, at the 'scene of the crime'. People have already come forward with some information, and I'll be looking at it further.

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