KM Malta Airlines got off to a less than auspicious start as it took over as Malta’s national airline from Air Malta, which shut its doors a day before its 50th anniversary, not due to its service but due to new staffing policy which it had introduced.
There was uproar as it emerged that the new airline had removed the requirement for cabin crew to know how to speak both Maltese and English – with the former no longer being a requirement.
A spokesperson for the airline said that knowledge of spoken and written Maltese was removed as a mandatory requirement because it expected that over 80% of its customers would not be Maltese nationals, while ministerial sources also told Illum – which originally reported the story last Sunday – that the decision was to bring the airline in conformity with other low-cost airlines.
That latter statement is especially ironic, as KM Malta’s own website says “we are not a low-cost airline.” Yet decisions like these bring it closer to appearing as such.
It was a truly disappointing decision which continued to dilute the ‘national’ element of the new airline and really sends the wrong message about our national pride: we should be proud to have the unique language that we do and we should be promoting our identity to those who come to Malta.
After the uproar, Prime Minister Robert Abela stepped in and assured that the crew on every KM Malta flight would have at least one person who had knowledge of Maltese – but this attempt to save face is still a step back from the service which used to be provided.
The new airline has kept the same chairman and top management as Air Malta did, together with using the same Abu Dhabi-based consultants as it was set up: yet rather than those who led the company into bankruptcy, it is the Maltese language which has been dropped.
Out of all the things that needed changing when compared to Air Malta, this was not one of them.
There is some serious mixed messaging when it comes to the Maltese language at the moment.
On the one hand, the government has set up a Centre of the Maltese Language (and given the leadership of it to one of its lackeys who has no qualifications in the Maltese language, on a bumper salary) with the aim of strengthening the national language – even though a Maltese Language Council already exists.
On the other hand, decisions such as this pertaining to KM Malta are taken, and we also see other authorities – such as Identita’ which, despite having its name changed from English to Maltese, dropped the use of Maltese on its signage – neglecting the Maltese language.
In reaction to the furore surrounding KM Malta’s language policy, the civil service head Tony Sultana now recently formally instructed government department heads to use the Maltese language more often within public administration.
One hopes that this will signal a wider policy shift when it comes to the Maltese language.
As for KM Malta Airlines? One hopes that this isn’t a case of ‘start as you