Despite various attempts by opposition MPs to get him to do so, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis refused to rule out the privatisation or partial privatisation of Air Malta during question time in parliament today.
Question time was devoted to a single question by MP Claudio Grech, focusing on the possible impact on Air Malta's employees of restructuring measures which are set to be implemented this year.
Dr Zammit Lewis promptly answered that successful restructuring would leave the airline's workers better off and asked Mr Grech to refer to a previous parliamentary question, before government MP Anthony Agius Decelis gave the minister the opportunity to criticise the previous government's past effort with a question of his own.
The minister's extensive reply led Mr Grech to remark that he should be in a position to answer the question properly, since he had obviously prepared himself well, only for Dr Zammit Lewis to highlight a number of occasions when the previous government had failed to answer parliamentary questions by Labour MPs.
Subsequently, PN MP Jason Azzopardi referred to claims made in an article which appeared on yesterday's edition of The Sunday Times of Malta, in which sources said that Air Malta was in strategic alliance talks with Turkish Airlines, and that a full takeover of Air Malta was not being ruled out.
Dr Azzopardi then asked whether privatisation of Air Malta was in line with government's electoral manifesto, and if not, whether he could exclude that it would take place
The MP's choice of question was perhaps unwise, since privatisation of Air Malta was neither mentioned nor excluded in the manifesto, although Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had repeatedly warned against privatising the airline when he was Opposition Leader.
Dr Zammit Lewis then highlighted what the manifesto said about Air Malta: that a Labour government would value Air Malta's strategic importance by retaining it as the national airline and an integral part of the country's tourism strategy, and work to strengthen it and expand it in a regional context.
He noted that he had told The Sunday Times that the government was willing to work with every airline to achieve the best result.
Shortly afterwards, Dr Azzopardi pointed out that the minister had failed to exclude the total or partial privatisation of Air Malta, and highlighted the concerns raised by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association over a possible takeover by Turkish Airlines.
But Dr Zammit Lewis simply noted that the MHRA was actually in favour of privatisation as it proposed a particular privatisation model itself - it said that the airline should remain Maltese, even if shares in the airline were sold - and once more, refused to rule out the possible sale of the airline.