12 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 JANUARY 2025
NEWS
51 employees still on Air Malta plc books,
earning a combined €2.28 million
THERE are 51 people still employed with
Air Malta plc, who earn a combined €2.28
million yearly.
This comes following a reply to a parlia-
mentary question by PN tourism spokes-
person Mario De Marco made to finance
minister Clyde Caruana.
Caruana did not break down the roles of
the 51 employees or their individual salaries.
Air Malta's last flight after more than 50
years took place last year, after it was re-
placed by KM Malta Airlines.
Malta's first national airline was was for-
mally set up on 1 April 1973.
Air Malta was Dom Mintoff's brainchild
in a Malta that was industrialising and find-
ing its feet economically ahead of the with-
drawal of British forces in 1979. A critical
Opposition gave the fledgling airline short
shrift at the time, branding its aircraft 'birds
of lead' in the belief that it will not survive
for long.
Despite its crucial role, the airline became
a glorified employment agency over the
years for whoever was in government, with
people close to the major parties finding
well-paid jobs within the airline.
Politicians on either side of the House have
repeatedly tried to scapegoat each other for
Air Malta's collapse. From the ill-fated de-
cision taken in the mid-1990s under a Na-
tionalist administration to create a regional
offshoot of Air Malta with its own aircraft
to the Labour government's decision to ex-
pand the network with unprofitable routes
after 2017, every administration has driven
a nail in the coffin.
The airline experienced a slow and painful
decline over the past three decades.
Attempts to rescue the airline proved in-
effectual and when the European Commis-
sion refused to accept a fresh government
bailout there was no runway left for Air
Malta to perform another take-off.
Government was forced to chart a new
course that would see Air Malta cease oper-
ations once and for all and be replaced by a
new national airline.
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