In the article entitled “RJ saga rumbles on and on“ (TMIS, 29 July), you speculate that I might have been referring to Louis Grech as one of “two chairmen of the airline who … played a part in the purchase of the RJs”. Had you contacted me, I could have told you right away that there was no reference to any other chairman, let alone Mr Grech.

Mr Grech was appointed chairman in 1997, and therefore could not have had a hand in the RJ purchase signed in 1994/95. Deliveries of the aircraft had already taken place.

Mr Grech is very able to defend himself. However, I would be remiss were I not to point out that, during his chairmanship, Mr Grech left no stone unturned to try to solve the problems that were besetting the airline because of the RJ operations. One instance of this was when he came up with the idea that the RJs be sold as part of a package containing the B737-300s and A320s, in return for the lease of 12 newer Airbuses from International Lease Finance Corporation in 2009.

Unfortunately, the abysmal market values of the RJs and the lack of appetite for them from other airlines led us to conclude that the deal to lease the newer Airbuses at favourable rates would be severely impacted by the RJ element. The decision was taken to take the RJs out of the equation and address further asset impairments, even if inevitable, without contaminating the extremely favourable deal with ILFC.

I take note of the detailed comparisons you quote between different aircraft types that could have suited Air Mata to implement the hub concept. Without going into the merits of the hub project itself, I can confirm that the studies made by my department showed that the Avroliner RJ was one of the least suited, if not the least suited, for such operations. Its cost per available seat-kilometre was extremely high and so were its trip costs. The studies were later borne out by actual results.

I can confirm that this was the only occasion when the airline purchased aircraft that our studies showed were not the most suitable. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, since all the other aircraft we purchased (14 Boeings and Airbuses in all) gave excellent results in operation and were sold at a healthy profit after many years of operation.

I can also confirm that the much-aligned B737-200 was also sold at a decent profit. An aircraft that was consigned to the rubbish bin by the decision-makers was at the top of a list of some 24 aircraft evaluated by Air New Zealand, which were determined to buy it and did so. Ironically, this aircraft was leased back to us for two summers.

Frans Camilleri

NAXXAR