In his counter reply to the Opposition Leader’s response to the budget speech, the Prime Minister accused Dr Alfred Sant of destructive criticism and behaviour unbecoming. Dr Gonzi highlighted instances where, according to him, Dr Sant was destructive at times when it was his duty to offer constructive criticism which, again according to Dr Gonzi, is always encouraged and welcomed by his government.

The period when government was working to find a substitute to take over the helicopter operation to Gozo was one of the highlighted instances.

I cannot ignore the faulty argument brought forward by Dr Gonzi to defend his administration’s decision to “solve” the long outstanding problems of the Malta-Gozo air-link.

In simple terms, and with a few figures, the picture of the current operation will show with tangible proof that we are now paying far more for far less. Moreover, it would not be amiss to state that the decision was only meant to serve as a temporary political solution which, as predicted, has resulted in a rapid decline in passengers’ patronage.

From its inaugural day in March up to the end of September, the new service has attracted a meagre number of 5,966 passengers, which also included a good number of free promotional tickets given to the travel trade and media representatives. This represents 19.61 per cent of the 30,472 that Malta Air Charter carried during the same period the year before. With a drastically reduced winter schedule that eliminates night flights, the number of passengers will, unavoidably, dwindle even further.

In the likely event that the traffic maintains the current trend, by the end of February 2006 the helicopter will not carry one passenger more than 8,047.With all the negative elements that Dr Gonzi’s administration attributed to the former service, during the same period in the previous year, Malta Air Charter carried more than 42,000 passengers. And that was not a good year.

Malta Air Charter operated with two helicopters, each configured to carry 25 passengers. Before it started to cut down on costs, it used to operate with three. With a 24-hour service, 12 months of the year, the operation was costing Air Malta an annual loss of circa Lm120,000, Lm2.85 per passenger but not taking into account the good opportunity that the service was giving Air Malta to gain more of the international traffic going to Gozo.

The present one helicopter operation, which carries only 11 passengers at an exorbitant fare, will cost the tax-payer more than Lm167,000 per year in indirect government subsidy or Lm20.75 for each passenger flying one way.

The government subsidy is inclusive of a hefty MIA discount on passenger handling charge. MAC was charged more than Lm80,000 per year while the new operators pay only Lm9,000. No fewer than 16 government employees are on secondment at no charge to the new company which, at a conservative estimate, is costing the tax-payer more than Lm96,000 per year.

Not included in the figure indicated, but also paid by the government, is another huge amount of money to cover the cost of salaries paid to the heliport manager, air traffic controllers, four crews of fire fighters as well as security personnel and all operational and other expenses incurred at the heliport. All office space and hangarage is also provided gratis to the operators.

It does not need the brains of high calibre economists to conclude that a subsidy of well over Lm41.50 on each passenger flying by helicopter to stay in Gozo is anything but a fair and viable proposition. Ironically, however, our Prime Minister still insists that the agreement with the Spanish company was a positive one. And Alfred Sant has a negative attitude! Dr Sant is a born realist who does not believe in and propagate imaginary pies in the skies.

Charles J Buttigieg

Mellieha

Mr Buttigieg is a former general manager of

Malta Air Charter