Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1235679
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 APRIL 2020 NEWS CORONAVIRUS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Sources within Medavia con- firmed that all crews working on the company's two Beechcraft 1900D and two Dash 8 aircraft were made redundant yesterday, as were the head of flight opera- tions and the head of ground op- erations. In all, 26 staff were fired. The crews were first informed on 2 April that the company was considering downsizing and, after the company's CEO and HR man- ager failed to turn up for a video conference scheduled for 6 April, the crews had written to the ad- ministration, asking for a meeting to discuss options. The sources said that the admin- istration did not reply to the crews' request until yesterday morning, when all 26 personnel received their redundancy letter. In some cases, the personnel's last day of work will be today, they were told. The sources insisted that the company's decision to ground its fleet and fire the crews did not make sense since Medavia was currently under contract by the UN WFP to assist in delivering humanitarian aid and medical staff and equipment in Tunisia and South Sudan. The WFP contract had been running in its fourth year, and Medavia used the Beechcraft 1900D and Dash 8 aircraft on those missions. Sources told MaltaToday that Medavia only informed the UN Rome office to unilaterally pull out of its contractual obligations with the WFP and that the region- al office in Juba and Tunis were not informed of the decision. 'No other option' When contacted, Ivan Refalo, Medavia's head of HR and corpo- rate communications, confirmed that the crews had been made re- dundant after the board decided to shut down all flight operations. "Under the circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and with all air travel suspended, the company had no other option but to ground the fleet, as it strives to bolster busi- ness in other departments in a bid to keep the company afloat," he said. "The company is trying to save as many jobs as possible." Refalo acknowledged the ex- istence of the WFP contract but said the board had concluded that those contracts alone were not enough to keep flight operations profitable. Refalo would not confirm that a Medavia crew was currently stranded in Juba, citing opera- tional and personnel security con- cerns. "But I must emphasise that the company still intends to repatri- ate all crew currently located at outstations and that we consider it our responsibility to bring these crew members back to Malta," he said. Medavia currently offers a wide range of services to the aviation industry. These include amongst others, specialised services in ground handling, aircraft main- tenance, aircraft operations and charters, charter brokerage and design engineering. 'No other option' - Medavia says redundancies were inevitable in current circumstances One of Medavia's 19-seater Beechcraft 1900D