Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/361046
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 AUGUST 2014 16 News TIM ATTARD MONTALTO THERE are currently seven low- cost airlines flying to Malta, with these accounting for no less than 38% of total passenger movements to the country, the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) told this news- paper. The airlines in question are Ryanair, Easyjet, Vueling, Norwe- gian Air Shuttle, Transavia.com, Wizz Air, and Germanwings. A low-cost airline is generally understood as meaning that the price of a ticket does not exceed €150 per person. However, as the MTA pointed out, "this does not mean that this price is never ex- ceeded as flight prices fluctuate on a continuous basis, depending on timing and demand and supply factors." Ryanair is perhaps the most es- tablished of all the airlines, and the fact that it flies to Malta from 11 countries – and 28 cities – is evidence in itself. Easyjet, for in- stance, flies from seven cities in the United Kingdom and Italy. Meanwhile, Vueling flies from four cities in Spain and Italy, Nor- wegian Air Shuttle from Denmark, Spain and, of course, Norway, while Wizz Air flies from Hunga- ry, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. Transavia.com and German- wings only fly from one country each, France and Germany respec- tively. All airlines operate to Malta during the summer months, with a large number of them doing so from April to October. Mean- while, 20 of the 28 Ryanair routes also fly during the winter months, from November to March, as do all the Easyjet flights from the United Kingdom. The latter's routes from Italy, however, do not. Vueling, Transavia.com and Germanwings do not operate dur- ing winter either, while Wizz Air's flight from Budapest is the only one that does so during winter. Norwegian Air Shuttle operate from Oslo and Copenhagen dur- ing the months of November and December but cease their flights from Madrid during that period. No sick leave for sports injuries? – Get stuffed! TIM DIACONO UNINFORMED. Short-sighted. A slap in the face of people who care about their own health. This is how sports professionals described the Malta Employers' Association's recent proposal that people suffering from a sports in- jury should not be entitled to sick leave, even if they are certified as unfit for work by their own doc- tor. This proposal was only one of several of the MEA's proposed amendments to the Employment and Industrial Relations Act but it immediately stood out for the way it described sports injuries as something 'self-inflicted'. Adding insult to injury (pun very much intended), it was crudely lumped together with some obvi- ously self-inflicted reasons for call- ing in sick, such as drunkenness and hangovers. The General Workers Union and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin were quick to attack this proposal, and the Forum Unions Maltin went as far as to say that it "goes against the basic rights of employees". On Friday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat described this proposal as "draconian". People quickly took to the social media to point out that the only thing 'self-inflicted' about a sports injury is that person's decision to take part in a sport in the first place. Are the MEA really suggest- ing that they would rather have un- fit and unhealthy employees than risk having to pay them on the rare occasions that they suffer a sports injury? Draconian indeed. MaltaToday asked four sports professionals to weigh into the de- bate. Adele Muscat, sports psycholo- gist for the Malta Football Asso- ciation, took issue with the MEA's casual description of sports injuries as 'self-inflicted'. "No person who practises sport regularly wants to get injured," she said. "People in sports cannot sit still for long anyway so they will take the least sick leave possible so as not to stay at home doing nothing. "Obese people, smokers and alco- hol abusers take loads of sick leave as a result of illnesses brought about by their lack of health." Muscat added that the MEA were denying healthy sportspeople the right to the same treatment on the rare occasions that they suffer a sports injury. "What message does that send out?" she asked. Mark Camilleri, director of medical services at the Physical and Sports Medicine Centre, also described the MEA proposal as "short-sighted and uninformed". "Employers should know that an active employee is usually a healthier, more energetic, happier employee," Camilleri said. "The MEA are actually shooting themselves in the foot, because people who exercise regularly have been proven to be at a lower risk for colds and back pains, two ma- jor causes of sick leave." Alex Attard Littschwager is a swim coach and plays water polo for the national team. He said that sport plays an important role in the development of character and self-discipline. "Employees who practise sport will therefore ben- efit their employers in terms of enhanced production and motiva- tion." John Xerri de Caro, a physi- otherapy lecturer at the University of Malta, also disagreed with the MEA's proposal on the basis that exercise and a healthy lifestyle are preventative measure for many chronic diseases. However, he also raised an inter- esting point. "An employer should not give sick leave to employees who sus- tain an injury when playing a sport for which they are paid and which is not their primary job," Xerri de Caro said. That would mean that employ- ers of footballers in the Premier Division need no longer hold their wallets in anxiety for every sliding tackle and shoulder barge. tdiacono@mediatoday.com.mt Mark Camilleri Adele Muscat Low-cost airlines equate to 38% of total passenger movements to Malta