Protecting Air Malta

Brian Smith (August 29), should know better than criticise Air Malta's CEO for protecting his turf on the low-cost airlines issue.

It is widely believed that the real reason (among other unfortunate ones) behind the failure of the late Sir Freddie Laker's Skytrain Transatlantic airline of the late 1970s were the subtle manoeuvres by a group of transatlantic airlines, including one British national airline.

History repeated itself a few years later when British Airways embarked on the infamous "dirty tricks" campaign in an attempt to put Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic out of business.