The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association last week expressed its concern at not being involved in the current talks being held with regard to the restructuring of Air Malta. Neither the Malta Tourism Authority nor the parliamentary secretary responsible for tourism is involved in the committee set up to draft the restructuring plan.

Judging from the instrumental role played by the tourism industry to attract low-cost airlines to Malta, omitting the players involved in this particular sector from being involved in saving the national airline seems to be a wrong decision. This is especially more so when considering that Air Malta carries the bulk of visitors to the country.

The lament may, initially, sound surprising especially since tourism is one of the major pillars of the Maltese economy, but the concern of the tourism sector goes beyond those investors who own establishments that cater for tourists and employ thousands of employees who depend directly or indirectly on this industry.

Furthermore, the lack of involvement of the tourism sector comes in the wake of recent reports published in the media that Air Malta’s restructuring will be severe, perhaps even more than anticipated so far, as the European Commission expressed its doubts on the viability of the airline.

While no official communication has been issued to explain why the tourism sector has been left out of the committee tasked with drafting a restructuring plan, the implications should the national airline fail are there for all to see. The industry has already expressed its concern on the downsizing in seat capacity after Air Malta reduced its flights to the UK, a major and important market for the industry. Naturally, the decrease in flights and seats available could translate in fewer tourists visiting the islands next year after an upturn was experienced this year.

The indications are that the airline will have to shed a significant amount of employees and, should this indeed be the case, it would be a very unfortunate situation. Thus, a special consideration should be made with regard to the thousands of employees engaged by the airline and the industry, and their families, who will suffer should the airline cease to operate.

There is no guarantee that any legacy airline or low-cost carrier will pick up the main routes which Air Malta currently flies to should the national airline close down. The business scenario element has to be factored in the restructuring plan and the tourism sector is among the best placed to provide the necessary feedback in this regard. The input that the industry can submit to the committee is invaluable since certain decisions can be based on factual information provided by the seasoned entrepreneurs and, perhaps, certain decisions, which might look good on paper but not necessarily in practice, can be avoided from the beginning.

Unfortunately, half-baked measures seem to prevail in this country and omitting to include the tourism industry in devising a turnaround plan for the national airline could be a gross mistake in the long term. The European Commission has anticipated this shortfall and warned that it will not accept half measures in the restructuring plan that has to be submitted within a few months’ time. The Commission is also expecting that the airline is overhauled in its entirety in this one and only chance available.