Air Malta has successfully concluded the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary company Sterling Travel and Tourism. The trade of the shares to Alpine Holdings Ltd, one of Malta’s leading travel organisations, follows Air Malta’s current strategy to focus solely on core operations. Similar divestment processes are currently underway to sell Air Supplies and Catering Co Ltd and the airline’s hotel interests.
Following the announcement that Air Malta will be rationalising its activities, in March of this year the airline issued a Request for Proposals from interested parties to acquire Sterling Travel and Tourism. After a thorough review, fitness and propriety tests and a final evaluation and selection process handled by the Government’s Privatisation Unit, Air Malta and Holiday Malta Company Ltd. (the airline’s tour operator subsidiary) entered into detailed discussions with Alpine Holdings Ltd. After a due diligence exercise, negotiations were finalised with the said company. The entire process was concluded on schedule. The agreement entails that none of the employees currently employed with Sterling Travel and Tourism will lose their jobs but will be amalgamated with the new structure.
Almost since its inception, the airline sought to diversify its activities to complement the operations of the airline. Many of Air Malta’s subsidiaries however, were set up at a time when Malta’s tourism infrastructure was in its infancy and there were not enough hotel beds available for specific markets. At that time the airline needed a solid infrastructure to complement its activities and Air Malta took it on itself to be the prime investor in Maltese tourism. Over the years the Air Malta Group expanded and the airline set up a number of subsidiaries that reflected the parent company's operation.
The tourism industry, which now represents around 24 per cent of the country’s GNP, has grown stronger over the past decades and is now professional and capable enough to manage without the direct involvement of Air Malta. The airline is now re-focusing on its core competence; that of being the prime air transport enterprise facilitating travel to/from Malta, while supporting tourism to Malta. It is therefore divesting itself from non-core operations and sticking to the airline business while always remaining committed to the community.
Sterling Travel and Tourism was set up in 1966 as LAC (Malta) Ltd. In recent years the company’s principal activity has been that of providing handling service to Holiday Malta Company Ltd. The company had a licence to carry out operations of an incoming tourism agent, outgoing travel agency, destination management company and organised excursion operator.
About Air Malta:
Air Malta is Malta’s national airline. The airline offers customers a selection of around 50 scheduled destinations to Europe, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. Air Malta has a fleet of 14 Airbus and Boeing aircraft configured in business and economy. The airline is in the middle of a four-and-a-half year aircraft fleet replacement project. By the year 2008, the airline's fleet will be replaced with 12 new state-of-the-art Airbus planes from the A320 and A319 aircraft family. By that time the average age of the fleet will go down to 2.7 years.
For more information, please contact Stephen Gauci, Officer Public Relations, on +356 2299228 – Fax - +356 21692861; e-mail: [email protected] or visit the website: www.airmalta.com