As Air Malta's fate hangs in the balance, Minister for Finance Clyde Caruana criticised Air Malta on Friday after the pre-budget document presentation for paying their employees after their retirement and said that the country cannot accept having an airline which is losing money.

“I cannot understand how a company can make a profit when its employees retire at 55 and are continued to be paid till they’re 65. It doesn’t make sense,” Caruana said.

“We cannot pretend to have an airline that is not losing money. We cannot accept this,” he said.

He said that the priority now should be cutting expenses “that do not make sense,” because Malta cannot continue to have a national airline which loses €40 million in a year.

He highlighted how it was unacceptable to have an airline which flies to different places and loses money on the trips.

However, regardless of what happens Caruana insisted that Malta will always have a national airline. He said that the national airline carries 30% of tourists, so without it, the industry would struggle a lot more.

“Air Malta needs to be fixed and it will be fixed,” Caruana said.

Additionally, he praised the executive chairman of Air Malta, David Curmi, for improving the number of seats filled up to 95% filled.

In response to a question asking whether Air Malta will be replaced by Valletta Air, he did not directly answer this question, but he hinted at it when talking about the need for reform.

He said that in order to save the airline the company would need a large capital injection and reform. However, this needs to be approved by the EU Commission.

“The company definitely needs a capital injection, how this will happen and the form the company will take will be decided by the EU Commission,” he said.

“I’m not going to do anything if it’s not authorised by the European Commission,” he said.