Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning said that no agreement had been signed for the sale of Air Malta shares with any other carrier.

He was reacting to a story in Times of Malta, which reported that a deal had been struck with UAE’s Etihad Airways.

But no deal has as yet been made, and the government is still at the stage where a strategic partner is being sought for the national carrier.

The first deal that will be signed will be a memorandum of understanding, which will be followed up with the start of official negotiations with the partner that is chosen, Dr Muscat said. After that, there will be a comprehensive consultation exercise with the unions and all other stakeholders.

At this stage, there are no decisions on jobs but the government will be doing its utmost to safeguard all employees.

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis was on the same wavelength as the Prime Minister when contacted by The Malta Independent. “Talks are still on-going” he said, but would not comment any further.

Two weeks ago The Malta Independent on Sunday had published an interview with Minister  Zammit Lewis and when asked about the negotiations between Air Malta and another strategic partner he said, “We have negotiations that are still ongoing. We are not going to sell ourselves; we are still on track with negotiations. There were moments, in January, when certain declarations were made, so justifiably one would get the impression that negotiations were coming to a close. There were other moments were the momentum slowed down.”