Is anybody from Air Malta out there?

Air Malta's recent concerns - thefts from baggage, airport and ticket charges, a government minister accused of accepting preferential treatment over seats - have been well documented in this newspaper over the last few months.

My own, recent experience, I am afraid, adds to a growing perception of an airline in terminal decline, unable - or unwilling - to respond adequately, if at all, to its customers.

In early February I booked two return tickets from Heathrow to Malta on a flight I have used many times over the last 20 years.

I needed to attend meetings in Gozo and hoped, after that, to spend a short holiday on the island with my wife.

Unfortunately, the meetings were postponed for a few weeks just after I had booked the seats. I telephoned Air Malta - it was a fortnight before scheduled departure -  to cancel the bookings but, knowing that I should need to travel again fairly soon, asked if the ticket costs (paid by credit card) could be held against a further booking. This, I was told, was not possible.

However, for a £30 cancellation fee a ticket, I could have a refund. This balance would be payable to my credit card account. I agreed, although the method of re-imbursement seemed unusual.

What followed has been a frustrating story of buck-passing and incompetence. The refund was not paid to my credit card account in March or April. Telephone calls to Air Malta's London office, after interminable waits exacerbated by a particularly inane sound track, produced, at first, a diversion to "customer services" who, if they exist, were always engaged and never responded to the number I left. Eventually, on about my seventh (sic) call I spoke to a helpful ticket sales assistant who traced my tickets reference number and revealed that "no action has yet been taken". She would "try and initiate the refund".

That kind initiative seems to have failed. Since then, resolution slowly draining away, I have tried to get some kind of reply from customer services or, indeed, anyone in the London office of Air Malta. "No answer" has been the stern reply.

As a footnote, I should add that, when my meetings in Gozo were re-scheduled, I flew with BA (GB Air). My family - we have a house in Gozo - would usually book at least 14 return tickets to Malta through Air Malta each year. When - perhaps if - we return to the island, it will be by BA or - could it happen? - a cut-price airline.