Inefficiency at MIA

In spite of its welcoming and attractive architecture, Malta International Airport today represents what may probably be considered to be the weakest link in our hospitality chain and a disappointing experience in the form of a necessary evil for the vast majority of visitors to Malta.

Like many other professionals in the tourism industry, I am compelled to visit MIA on a regular basis to meet and greet and to bid farewell to overseas groups and individuals who have chosen Malta as their destination.

Arrival procedures are usually quite acceptable, although too often the first Maltese experience encountered is a band of very rowdy taxi drivers swarming around the Arrivals lounge, usually in a state of euphoric chaos expressed in shouting, load laughter, singing and other surprising airport behaviour.

A small but useful improvement would also be the fixing of an additional flights monitor directly at the end of the railing where most arrivals are welcomed, avoiding all those waiting from regularly walking up and down to the closest monitors.

A far more unpleasant situation is that encountered upon departure. The first glaring problem is the quasi-total absence of trolleys outside the departures lounge at peak times. This inadequacy is not so much caused by a shortage of trolleys, but by the unacceptably long delays by porters to wheel them out from inside.

Every time I encountered this problem, there were always many spare trolleys strewn all over the departure lounge, but not one porter in sight. Dare I ask how many porters are employed at MIA and where all these porters may be at these peak times during the day?

When accompanying groups to the airport for departure, it is a most annoying situation to have a coach full of (often elderly) clients disembarking outside MIA only not to find a single trolley. Due to this irregular situation I now ensure that I drive up to the airport several minutes before the coach arrives and virtually always end up carting the trolleys out myself amid scuffles with other travellers who attempt to help themselves to my hard-earned stock of trolleys. This because in most cases requesting the MIA representatives at the Customer Care desk to summon the porters is a total waste of time!

This brings me to the MIA personnel at the misleadingly named 'Customer Care' desk. Although sometimes one is lucky enough to find courteous and helpful personnel, in most cases the girls seem to pride themselves on being cold, unhelpful and most unfriendly.

The last time I made a futile attempt to (politely!) request that a porter be located to usher trolleys outside, the girl never even looked up at me or uttered a single word; she simply picked up the phone, spoke to the person in question and went back to what she was doing without ever even lifting her eyes towards me or acknowledging my existence. This, unfortunately and unbelievably, is a very common practice and far from being an exception. Besides, as expected, the porter never turned up.

The MIA customer care personnel's uncaring attitude is only rivalled and in most cases surpassed by the Air Malta check-in personnel, who once again in their large majority prove to be a miserable lot devoid of manners, courtesy and cordiality.

It is hard to accept that while Air Malta air personnel are usually extremely polite and caring, most ground personnel are gruff and abrupt, making any form of communication with them a most unpleasant experience. Furthermore, they seem to bear some grudge against local agents and their personnel as I have been often disdainfully asked whether I am a particular group's agent and then scornfully put in my place in so many words.

I imagine that they feel it necessary to point out that within the airport I hold absolutely no authority and that no matter who I may be, the passengers were now totally in their hands - or, should I say, at their mercy. In reality I have no intention of proving any authority to anyone; I simply refuse to have some ill-mannered operative spoiling months and often years of hard work and considerable investment of resources to attract and bring over overseas guests, with his or her cattle-herding passenger handling tactics.

I could mention dozens of such negative experiences with rude check-in staff, as well as unhelpful airline representatives and even flaming mad security personnel in the form of a raving mad (there's no other description for it) elderly security man literally screaming and swearing at passengers for crossing his little yellow line. All highly unacceptable treatment for any self-respecting traveller and very reminiscent of the cheapest mass tourism destinations.

Of all places, one would expect the airport - by its very nature and by the fact that it is the first and last impression of visitors - to be a local example of the famous though waning Maltese hospitality, not a massive anti-climax for all those who would have worked so hard to make the guests' stay in Malta so enjoyable.

I have written this letter instead of lodging formal complaints against such members of MIA, Air Malta, other airlines and security staff and in the hope that other fellow operators in the tourist industry will also air their dissatisfaction at the dismal service they and their guests receive at MIA. I know that I will continue doing so until considerable improvement is registered.