Air Malta appears to have had a somewhat quick change of mind, and of its tune, yesterday when it came to the initial suspension of its cabin crew and the cabin crew union’s sudden, and apparently unrelated, industrial action that threatened to damage the airline in numerous ways.

The airline first said it had been appalled by the actions of its cabin crew after a video was uploaded to www.independent.com.mt showing a group of boisterous football fans apparently taking over the flights’ public address system to perform a rendition of Happy Birthday for one of their friends, along with other shenanigans completely unfit for a commercial airline flight.

The flight’s cabin crew was suspended by the airline soon after the video was published pending further investigations into the incident, which had left several passengers speaking with this newsroom fuming.  One likened the scene on the flight to that of a village xalata.

Soon after, the airline’s cabin crew union announced it had begun an industrial action which was to delay flights leaving Malta by about an hour, with the delays threatening to create havoc on the airline’s landing slots at its destination airports and all the consequences that come with such delays.

That industrial action was over an alleged breach of the details of the collective agreement for cabin crew staff.  The details of that alleged breach are still unclear.

Air Malta’s CEO and Chairperson told this newsroom yesterday that that the industrial action had come “completely out of the blue” at the start of a scheduled meeting scheduled yesterday, after the video was posted online, between the cabin crew union and the airline.

“This morning’s meeting was scheduled so the announcement, without warning, of industrial action came as a shock,” the CEO told this newsroom.

But somehow over the course of meeting two things happened, two things which were apparently completely unrelated according to the official version of events.

First, the industrial action was called off.  Secondly, the crew was cleared of any misbehaviour, with the airline saying no breach had been found and that the crew’s suspension had been lifted.  Also lifted was the threat to delay the airline’s flights by an hour.

But according to official accounts there was no connection between the sudden industrial action, which had ‘come out of the blue’, and the suspension of the cabin crew of the flight in question.  It is, however, difficult to fathom this version of events.

The cabin crew must have been taken aback by the suspension of its members, and its members undoubtedly complained to the union.  The union, for its part, knew very well that setting flights back by an hour would not only considerably inconvenience its customers, wreak havoc on the airline’s landing slots across Europe, but that it would also potentially cost the airline a pretty penny.

The airline has explained its investigations into the incident and it has provided explanations for the uncharacteristic behaviour that was allowed on the flight.  It insisted that such actions were allowed so as to “please our passengers within safety and operational procedures.”  But not all passengers were pleased and many were downright shocked and disgusted by what was allowed to transpire on the flight.

The airline, once it was threatened with industrial action that would inflict yet another wound to the airline that is already dying a death by a thousand cuts, could ill-afford yet another cut of this nature.

As such, it could be reasonably postulated that the airline buckled to the cabin crews demands to lift the suspension of its members, or else. But that, of course, would be pure speculation, wouldn’t it?