Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1233417
09.04.2020 7 EDITORIAL BusinessToday is published every Thursday. The newspaper is a MediaToday publication and is distributed to all leading stationers, business and financial institutions and banks. MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EDITOR: PAUL COCKS CONTRIBUTING JOURNALIST: MASSIMO COSTA BusinessToday, MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016, Malta Newsroom email: bt@mediatoday.com.mt Advertising: afarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Telephone: 00356 21 382741 A ir Malta has always been a strategic cog in Malta's economic development. Being an island that depends on imports and exports to sur- vive, it was a judicious decision back in the 1970s to establish a national carrier that provided stable links to the outside world. Air Malta helped the tourism industry boom. It was also used in a strategic way to open new markets for tourism and travel, which may have made sense for some industries but not for the airline's bottom line. ere were also commercial decisions that backfired, leaving the airline with losses that were never recouped. But what was possible then through the use of taxpayer money to subsidise loss-making routes, became harder to sus- tain when Malta joined the EU. e prohibition of State-aid unless mandated by the EU, meant that Air Malta had to function fully as a commercial enterprise. It took two rescue packages – one just before Mal- ta joined the EU – and another in 2010 to address the big finan- cial problems Air Malta had. Over the past few years, gov- ernment's plans for the airline oscillated between downscaling and the involvement of a stra- tegic partner, to upscaling the airline and opening new routes with dreams to tap markets as far and wide as India and New York. All of that has now been blown away by the coronavirus pan- demic that has led to the whole- sale disruption of travel. Air Malta, like all other air- lines, has been brought to its knees. e airline already en- tered this period with a reported €30 million loss from last year's operations and the resultant cri- sis caused by Covid-19 has been its death knell. e intransigence of pilots and cabin crew to accept a reduction in wages as part of the airline's strategy to try and contain costs at a time when income has been reduced to zero, has not helped. e mass redundancies an- nounced by the airline over the past 24 hours are a strong re- sponse to the unions' inability to compromise at a time of crisis. Whether these redundancies will be enough to help the air- line survive the crisis still has to be seen but the company evi- dently had no other choice. How quick the crisis ends does not only depend on Malta's de- cisions. Air Malta will not be able to fly unless foreign air- ports are open as well, and even then, it will greatly depend on people's appetite and financial ability to fly. Within the circumstances, we have to brace ourselves for a na- tional carrier that will operate with a handful of aircraft, fewer routes and a drastically down- sized workforce. Air Malta will have to start small, growing by time as the situation develops. But then would be the time for politicians to stop using the air- line to give blue-eyed boys and girls cushy jobs. is has been Air Malta's bane since inception. e current crisis should be used as an opportunity to start afresh with an airline that runs a lean operation with work con- ditions that respect employees but which also make sense in an evolved airline industry. Restarting in this way will en- able Air Malta to continue serv- ing the island for the foreseeable future. Bracing ourselves for a leaner, smaller Air Malta