The government’s plan for the last-ditch restructuring of the national airline Air Malta has proven to have failed, the PN said on Monday.

PN MPs Ivan J Bartolo and Ivan Castillo addressed a press conference on the government’s plans to restructure Air Malta in a last-ditch attempt to save the airline, which included plans for collective agreements for Air Malta workers, a major cut in the workforce, as well as cost-cutting plans that will see the airline ridding itself of ground handling operations. The plan also included the end of routes which were not viable, and that Air Malta would become a European Network Carrier.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana had announced in January that the government’s plan would see its completion on 12 August. The plan for Air Malta’s employee transfer scheme has since, however, been extended from mid-August to October.

“Eight months have passed, and nothing has been done with regards to the government’s plan for Air Malta. As a consequence, workers still do not know what will happen to them,” Bartolo said.

Bartolo said that the plan did not consider everyone, and stakeholders were not included. He also said that few changes were made thus far, and employees of the airline are living in uncertainty which could also affect their mental health.

Additionally, Bartolo said that in the plan for change, there was no consideration over the discrepancies in salaries once workers were transferred to public services, despite the scheme entailing that it would see Air Malta workers being employed by the government in grades commensurate with their current income.

Castillo said that at this point in time, workers of Air Malta should have already found their place and proposals promised by the government should have already been done.

Castillo said that if the government failed to put in practice what it promises, then it cannot expect to remain credible. He also said that this casts doubt over whether or not the European Union will grant state aid to save the company.

The plan entailed that crucial items of the restructuring should have been completed by June of this year. “Both phases of the relocation of workers and the closure of collective agreements should have been completed by now,” Castillo said. Castillo said that ground handling operations, which should have seen a change in service, was also not done.

“This failure endangers the work and employees of Air Malta, and reduces credibility in the government,” Castillo said.

Air Malta Executive Chairman David Curmi had said that the deadline was optimistic, but after meeting the unions in the coming weeks, a final deadline will be decided.