How refreshing. After months and years of hankering, our authorities have recognised that apples do occasionally fall into your lap.
It is truly remarkable that the adjudicating committee appointed by the government to evaluate the proposals submitted by Ryanair and Easy Jet managed to give a resounding yes for both airlines to operate out of Malta in just over a week.
When one says it is remarkable, one has to bear in mind that the original time-frame was supposed to be one month. So, it would have to be a good two thumbs up this time round; or not? One would have to receive the news with mixed feelings. There is satisfaction at the fact that both airlines will be operating the Luton route, creating an influx of passengers, but perhaps more importantly for Maltese people, we will now have routes out of here that do not cost an arm and a leg.
There will also be new arrivals from Dublin, Mulhouse-Basel and Pisa. Thankfully, the committee bowed to pressure from all sides to come to a speedy decision. This pressure came from the media, popular opinion, local businessmen in the hospitality and leisure section as well as the low cost carriers themselves.
One month would have been far too long a time for the carriers to set up the logistics to operate the routes satisfactorily enough for them to have an impact on our dwindling tourist arrivals figures.
We posed a question earlier though, asking whether the swift decision deserves praise. The positives have already been mentioned, but what about the negatives? The plain and simple fact of the matter is that this is simply a “better late than never” scenario. Why on earth has it taken so long?
Does the government sincerely think that people will believe that the situation was not ripe for low cost carriers two and even three years ago, but is now? Of course people will not.
Maltese people have been looking on with jealousy at the effects of low cost carriers on both outbound and inbound travel for years and simply could not understand why the government was dragging its feet on the issue.
Of course, if one analyses the situation from a more informed angle, the issue of Air Malta coming within a whisker of going bankrupt did have an effect. One is sure that the government decided to hold back to allow the Air Malta regeneration package to start yielding results before allowing competition in. Air Malta does seem to have recovered somewhat with cost cutting here and there, so much so that inflight entertainment (wow!) has been introduced while free newspapers and a bite to eat have made a reappearance.
Perhaps we have not seen the full story unfold yet. These few routes that Ryanair and EasyJet have secured are but the tip of the iceberg. One will no doubt remember that Ryanair wanted to open a base of operations here to fly out to the whole of Europe. You never know what EasyJet have up their sleeve on the other hand, but one is sure that the Basel-Mulhouse and Luton routes are not their ultimate goal.
Well done adjudicating committee, but government should have set you up a long time ago. Still, don’t count your chickens before they hatch.