MIA trims course to fly through turbulence

While southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin have enjoyed a six per cent increase in international tourist arrivals, Malta's downturn in tourism figures has hit Malta International Airport's revenue results, its CEO, Peter Bolech, said yesterday.

Preventive and proactive measures, however, have enabled the company to declare an equitable dividend comparable to previous years, he told the MIA shareholders' annual general meeting at Hilton Malta.

Metaphorically speaking, Mr Bolech said MIA's meteorological conditions experienced "instances of turbulence, as is common in the aeronautical world, which did give us cause to track and trim our course to present shareholders with the best possible results".

Mr Bolech has been CEO of the company for four years - a period he described as unceasingly eventful and equally rewarding. "Everyday, we are being told the future is bleak", but MIA has not been discouraged, he said.

Profits registered were more or less the same as for the previous year, and the relative success was achieved by exerting greater efforts to compensate for inevitably unachievable targets, he told the shareholders.

The impact of the 100 per cent increase in the departure tax could not be overlooked, and MIA welcomed the government's intention to ease the tax as a "much-needed relief to the burdens imposed on the industry".

The hefty energy costs soared to Lm1 million in the year under review, he pointed out.

Notwithstanding this scenario, MIA held its ground, Mr Bolech said, by taking proactive steps to reach its targets rather than adopting an easier wait-and-see attitude. It instituted a forceful marketing drive to attract new airlines and encourage the already established ones to increase their frequencies and operate new routes.

The company managed to contain its key operating costs at last year's levels.

It intended to continue striving to attract to Malta, on the basis of a level playing field, any airline that had the potential to increase tourism, but without creating any distinct category of operations, such as low cost.

"It remains our serious intent to safeguard the operations of Air Malta... However, it is equally in our interest to pursue our objective to bring about new activity and improve the performance on routes that are underserved by Air Malta and the traditional airlines," Mr Bolech pointed out.

He underlined the need for all the stakeholders in the tourism industry to join forces to improve product Malta.

He extended an open invitation to any national organisation to team up and contribute to the pool of incentives to attract other airlines.

After an initial slump in retail business, inevitably experienced with the abolishment of duty free facilities, the sector has been stabilised, Mr Bolech said.

The continual development is evident in the opening of 10 new outlets since privatisation, generating over Lm170,000 in the financial year under review.

MIA, he said, was looking for the ideal strategic partner to commercialise the large tracts of land that would also contribute significantly to the national economy.

Cargo handling capacity has also been significantly increased over the past year, with two thirds of the new terminal being operated by the airport's second ground handler, Globeground. In the first half of this year, MIA cargo throughput was about eight per cent higher than in the same period last year.

MIA's master plan also includes further investment in a new cargo village on the airport site, and the company is in the process of finalising a contract to start development on part of the proposed new area of this village.

On the cultural level, MIA has extended its agreement with the Manoel Theatre for the restoration of its roof, and it is also financing a large-scale school project on the use of alternative energy that it plans to test on its own premises, he said.