Opinion: This Is Exactly Why Malta Can’t Have A Profitable National Airline
On 30th March, a wave of nostalgia swept over the island’s social media feeds as Air Malta, our national carrier for the past half a century, completed its final descent. This wasn’t just a routine landing; it marked the culmination of years of financial troubles. Since the late 90s, Air Malta has grappled with financial instability, reliant on government bailouts to keep it afloat.
Over the years, the airline became a chess piece in the game of political manoeuvring, serving as a tool for political patronage, manipulated by one administration after another. Both parties will tell you that the other inflicted most harm on the beloved national airline, but neither can say they ever provided the strategic vision or operational discipline needed for it to stand a chance.
Malta isn’t the first country to face the dilemma of having to reinvent its national carrier to reflect the modern aviation landscape and it is an endeavour that is not without its challenges. However, when executed with strategic acumen, it can provide national carriers with a new lease of life and fighting chance of survival.
As Air Malta operated its last flight, Malta’s new carrier, KM Malta Airlines, prepared for take off. Its maiden flight on Easter Sunday was perfectly timed. The resurrection of Malta’s national airline, free from the shackles of its predecessor on the same day Jesus supposedly rose from the dead.
However, the optimism was short-lived. Within just a day, the airline was embroiled in its first controversy, one that seemed almost scripted for its timing and content.
On April Fool’s day, it was reported that prospective cabin crew applying to fly with this new national airline would not be required to have a Maltese language qualification. What followed, predictably, was mass social media outrage.
Amidst this furore, the Opposition chimed in, issuing a statement calling for the decision to be revoked. This move, typical of a PN that now seems only able to jump on populist issues without a shred of vision, added fuel to the fire.
Now let’s consider the linguistic debate at the heart of this controversy for a second. It’s not a denigration of the Maltese language, which, like English, is today a pillar of our national identity – in the high-flying world of aviation, where safety, efficiency, and global connectivity are paramount, the ability to communicate in multiple languages is not just an asset; it’s a necessity.
It is worth remembering that the role of Malta’s national airline isn’t to ensure that locals get a warm fuzzy feeling inside when they board an aircraft to return home, but to survive in one of the most competitive markets in an already challenging industry.
The future of KM Malta Airlines, emerging from the shadow of its predecessor, hinges on its ability to adapt and innovate. Only allowing Maltese-speaking crew on board will significantly shrink the pool of talent available to KM Malta Airlines during recruitment.
With many of Air Malta’s more experienced cabin crew having been forced into early retirement during our Airline of the Mediterranean experiment, it is likely that the airline could benefit from hiring experienced crew members coming from other airlines. These candidates will require considerably less training, allowing KM Malta Airlines to integrate them into their operations seamlessly ahead of the summer season.
In any case, the airline will undoubtedly be retaining a significant portion of the crew that have been flying Air Malta flights over the past months and presumably won’t be doubling or tripling its crew complement immediately. This means that a significant portion of the airline’s crew will be Maltese individuals. And even if, for the sake of argument, a flight was to be scheduled with only non-Maltese speaking cabin crew members, the number of passengers who do not have a basic understanding of English is infinitesimally small and getting smaller by the day.
In response to the public outcry, the Prime Minister came out to reassure the nation that he had issued instructions to ensure that Maltese is used aboard the new carrier. That’s right – on the second day of this airline’s existence, Robert Abela personally did the exact thing that led to Air Malta being driven out of business – he interfered in operational matters.
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This turn of events comes just six months after Finance Minister Clyde Caruana insisted the new airline would be run strictly on commercial grounds.
It seems all it took was a little public pressure to send our politicians rushing to appease critics as quickly as possible, without giving a second thought to why such a decision was taken to begin with.
A perfect illustration of the dysfunctional relationship between the government and the broader state that continues to plague the country, and a clear indication that this new airline will likely have the same fate as its predecessor.
With the PN having turned this into another one of their pointless battle cries and the Prime Minister and his administration seemingly capitulating to avoid losing ground with local voters, the foundations have been laid for KM Airlines to be yet another example of Malta’s struggle to distinguish between long-term bipartisan and national needs, and trivial populist politics.
Do you think KM Airlines stands a chance for a better future for a national airline?
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