The ailing national airline, which has repeatedly been told that it needs to shed jobs, has employed 25 part-time clerks on a full-time basis, The Malta Independent is informed.

Air Malta has only managed to break even in the second quarter of this year, having been in restructuring since 2009. The EU Commission had previously declared that a 2012 injection of state funds wa the last instance of state aid that the airline was allowed to receive. Air Malta issued a statement some weeks ago that is planning on expanding its fleet by summer 2018.

This newsroom sent questions to Air Malta to confirm whether the information about the part-time clerks is correct, and if so whether this was necessary/possible now that the airline is on a more stable financial footing.

In its response, the company simply said: “Air Malta has a staff compliment comprising of both part-time and full-time employees. Any decisions regarding employment are always taken from a commercial perspective in line with the airline’s business needs.”

This newsroom also asked whether there have been more promotions to full-time across the board, and whether the news of Air Malta finally breaking even means that it is at liberty to spend more. The questions, unfortunately, remained unanswered.

After negotiations with the EU Commission in 2011 which allowed a state subsidy of €130 million, it was established that by 2014 Air Malta had to balance its budget, and register a profit by March 2016. After this period, under EU state-aid rules which safeguard fair competition within the EU’s internal market, the only injection of cash allowed would have to come from private sources.

Air Malta projected losses of €4 million for the financial year-end March 2016, significantly lower than the €15 million loss registered at the end of March 2015. The EU Commission did not hand down any penalties in view of the progress made between 2015 and 2016.

Early in 2016 the government said that it spent months of negotiations with various airlines in order to acquire a strategic partner which would buy a minority stake and inject some much needed funds into Malta’s national airline – resulting in the MoU with Italy’s national carrier, Alitalia. The ill-fated deal ultimate fell through.

After the 2017 general election Konrad Mizzi replaced Edward Zammit Lewis as tourism minister, and thus responsible for Air Malta. He was quoted as saying that there would be a change from the previous legislature’s strategy, saying that the airline must be completely restructured before any strategic partners, like Alitalia was intended to be, could be brought in.