Air Malta’s chief executive officer last week updated the airline’s employees on the progress that has been achieved so far with regard to the restructuring process. The plan to save the airline from closing down has been ongoing since late last year when the alarm was sounded that the airline lacked the necessary liquidity to continue operating and has been at the centre of a desperate attempt by government to save the national airline. The company has been practically bankrupt since last year and was able to continue operating only through an emergency loan of €52 million which had to be approved by the European Commission and should eventually be paid back.

In his communication, the CEO, Peter Davies, touched upon the progress made on various fronts as negotiations seem to have been practically concluded on the voluntary redundancy schemes and the new organisational structure that the national carrier will adopt.

What stands out from the communication is the fact that around 150 areas have been identified for improvement and each of these projects will be implemented to help the national airline reduce its costs. Each of the projects mentioned in the communication is critical to the operations of the company and include negotiations with Malta International Airport on the contract between the two companies, a review of the catering contract, negotiations with the airline’s ICT provider, a number of initiatives to exploit the cargo segment and reviewing of costs related to the ground handling aspect of the business.

While each of the areas identified and mentioned in the communication is a step forward in the right direction, one cannot help but wonder why these areas were not tackled before rather than leaving the airline to incur significant losses which have to be absorbed by government and paid out of each and everyone’s taxes. The authorities responsible for the national carrier throughout the past decade, during which considerable losses were incurred, were accountable for the operation of the airline and should have had the foresight to renegotiate all the areas identified in the current restructuring process to avoid the present situation.

If the foresight was lacking, the fact that the airline was operating at a loss at a time when various other legacy airline either disappeared or were restructured to save them should have prompted the authorities responsible for the national airline to take the necessary measures to reduce costs by implementing the measures which have now been identified and eventually, and hopefully, executed.

It is practically useless calling on the authorities to shoulder their responsibility since in this country hardly ever is anyone held accountable for their action or rather lack of it. The rhetoric at government level is that the priority is to save the national airline and understandably government will do its utmost to achieve this aim with a general election less than two years away.

The fact remains that the company’s employees will have to pay for the lack of timely remedial action throughout the past 10 years while the country will have to shoulder the burden of past decisions by paying off the debt which has accumulated during the same period.