The Gozo helicopter service

Very recently, the Malta Air Charter now suspended services to Gozo were described by a prominent politician as "shameful". That service was being maintained with three very reliable MI8 helicopters during the peak season and two during the lean months of winter. During its 10 years in service Malta Air Charter had not reported any serious incident while the helicopters, with a configuration to carry 26 passengers each, carried on to achieve an average of 50,000 passengers a year.

To operate the service Air Malta was subsidising the route by circa Lm150,000 per annum. On its part, Malta Air Charter was contributing a hefty amount to Air Malta for handling as well as tax on fuel and VAT on passenger tickets to the government - a total figure which surpasses a Lm100,000 mark each year. That meant that although Malta Air Charter was registering those losses and bearing in mind that Air Malta is wholly owned by the state, the government was, in real terms, less than Lm50,000 out of pocket which may be converted to a subsidy of Lm1 per passenger holidaying in Gozo. That relative pittance was a healthy flow of tourists to our sister island.

Before the end of March we shall see the inauguration of a new service operated by Helicopteros del Sureste, a Spanish company with one Western European helicopter with a seating configuration of 13 passengers, probably Bell. All being well, the service frequency will be served with a schedule of 20 flights per day in summer and eight flights during winter. During the first year the helicopter operation is planned to perform 1,620 one-way flights with a total seating capacity of 21,060, saving cancellation of flights due to technical problems and bad weather conditions.

Even the top of the range western helicopters are conditioned to fly only during acceptable weather conditions. With 10 return flights in a day the helicopter will not have a slot longer than four hours to undergo the mandatory daily technical inspections and any required maintenance. In the likely event that a "technical hitch" is found and it requires more than four hours to put right, there will be no alternative other than to suspend the service with the consequential implications of passengers missing their international connecting flights out of Malta International Airport.

At 100 per cent seat factor, which has never and cannot be reached by any airline in the world, Helicopteros del Sureste will have the capacity to carry to Gozo and return 10,530 passengers in one year. They will not, however, have the capability to get close to that hypothetical figure. Basing some figures assumed on a competitive fare level and good frequency, the upcoming schedule could attract a healthy 70 per cent seat take up which represents an average of nine passengers per flight totalling 14,580, thus diminishing the present potential of 50,000 by 35,420 passengers each.

With an estimated average seat price of Lm20 for a one-way ticket, the whole operation will yield Lm291,600 revenue in one year. Hardly the cost to wet lease one Bell helicopter for the same period and very doubtful whether enough to sustain the service profitably.

Having stated the above, it has to be stressed and underlined that the quoted figures are based on the positive, that the service will attract traffic and that the market will absorb the exorbitant price levels of the new structure. Indeed, a very positive approach from my side. With both feet on the ground, it would be foolhardy to predict, at this stage, the extent the fare weighting a Gozo holiday package can afford.

If I were to be presumptuous I would therefore hasten to add that the new fare structure shall be counter productive and will decrease the present traffic and in the absence of a subsidy the life span of this service shall be a short one.

Because of my Gozitan roots and my heartfelt desire to see the Gozo tourist industry flourish, I sincerely hope that the figures and my predictions are erroneous. It is, however, very doubtful. Time will tell.

(Mr Buttigieg is a former general manager of Malta Air Charter.)