Maltese low-cost airline Efly has announced that its founder, Dr Luigi Crispino, has resigned from Chief Executive Officer of the company with immediate effect. He has also transferred all his shares to another company.

In his statement, Dr Crispino seems to be saying that his presence was an obstacle preventing the budding airline from receiving a licence and being able to start flying people on the routes it has chosen.

Dr Crispino declared that “subsequent to gaining the JAR-145 licence and the certification of CAMO organisation which authorises Efly to conduct its own maintenance on the fleet of aircraft it has leased from Aircraft Leasing Management, with my resignation I have removed the last obstacle for Efly to obtain the last part of the licence. I have done all this in the interest of Efly’s growth and the role that Efly can play for the benefit of the Maltese economy.”

According to a recent news post on siciliainformazioni.com, and news items on the Maltese media, Efly was ready to fly between Malta, Catania and Gatwick. One plane had already been bought and is present in Malta, a British Aerospace 146-300. The plane would have also had a business class and more space for the tourism class passengers. A second plane would have been added in the coming months.

The shareholders were notified with Dr Crispino’s decision to relinquish his post and decided to nominate a board to administer the company. The newly appointed chairman is Gilbert Gatt. New board members include Antonio Maria Mattei who is the Managing Director, Frans Camilleri and Joseph Attard.

Pressed by this paper to give reasons for his resignation or why he stated his presence may have been an obstacle to the airline, Mr Crispino refused to reply.

Nor did he reply to questions who he feels consider him as an obstacle, whether these are Maltese officials or people from abroad.