LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Maltàs national airline, Air Malta, will be liquidated “by the end of the year” and a new airline will take its place and start managing Air Maltàs operations. This was confirmed by the Chairman of Air Malta David Curmi in a report published by The Times of Malta. He explained that the transition will be without any extra obstacles. Curmi said that the European Commission is expected to reject the request made by the Maltese Government to inject €300 million to prevent Air Malta from bankruptcy. He added that the European Commission does not want a “photocopy” of Air Malta. The Maltese government presented to the European Commission a five-year plan which, according to Curmi, would lead to an airline that could profit. In October last year, the Minister for Finance Clyde Caruana had said in Parliament that the European Commission was not positive about the viability of Air Malta “because many promises in the past were not kept”. He admitted that the new airline which will replace Air Malta, will not operate like the airlines that offer cheap prices but that it will be offering great service. Regarding the future of the workers who are still with Air Malta, Curmi said that they will end up unemployed but they will be able to apply with this new airline. Minister Caruana had confirmed in Parliament that 351 former Air Malta workers chose to take the Early Retirement Scheme or the Voluntary Redundancy Scheme and were given a sum of money.
Curmi explained that ground handling, which was one of Air Maltàs problems, is now being handled by an Italian company Aviation Services SpA. However, this decision led to other problems because hundreds of Air Malta workers who were working in the ground handling operation ended up unemployed after the work started to be done by this company.
(ITALPRESS).
-photo credit Air Malta-

Source: medNews