As far back as November 4, I had insisted that the agreement with Helisureste of Spain was political camouflage intended to delay the winding up of the helicopter service to Gozo. I had then made bold statements to the effect that a helicopter service between Malta and Gozo was a suicidal operation and that a serious operator would not touch it with a barge pole. I had amply substantiated my arguments with statistics and predictions together with costs which were never convincingly countered by people in the trade.

On February 8, 2005, Censu Galea dedicated part of his speech during the adjournment in Parliament to address my criticism about the prospecting exercise that his ministry was undergoing at the time in search of an operator to take on the Gozo aerial service.

The minister's speech implied, or perhaps hinted, that my comments to the media were destructive and that my motive was a mere political agenda. Today's events are proving otherwise and leaving no shadow of a doubt that my comments had been constructive and very far from political.

On February 6, 2005, in another newspaper, I had stated that the fare structure offered by the new operator was prohibitive, counter productive and would reduce the traffic potential to an extent that without a hefty government subsidy the life of the service would be a short one. A few days later, Gotthard Tabone from the Ministry of Competitiveness and Communication responded with a personal attack.

According to Mr Tabone, I was being persistent in feeble attempts to gain sympathy, popularity and weakly depict myself as a highly qualified expert within the aviation field. Mr Tabone also quoted my one-liner "Time will tell" and boasted that the government was confident that the new operator would prove its high quality and adherence to international standards. He was also cock certain that Helisureste, with its vast experience, would transfer the service into a commercially viable business while being a valuable asset to the tourist industry. Some transformation! Some valuable asset!

I now interpret the recent statement by Minister Galea - that "it is very unlikely that the aerial service will continue after the end of October" - as a preparatory announcement and damage control of the fact that the service will cease forthwith. Regrettably for the ailing Gozo tourist industry, this will vindicate my predictions.

Now that the helicopter's sad story has almost ended, we will no doubt start reading about the strengths of a fixed-wing operation as an alternative. If I may be allowed to be a little more presumptuous, I will hasten to predict that such a service will be yet another white elephant and a second suicidal attempt.

There simply isn't enough passenger traffic between our two islands to sustain an aerial operation totally dedicated to cater for it without a huge government subsidy which again would not be sustainable for the amount of traffic it may attract.

However, in the unlikely event of a miracle that will increase the size of our islands and the tourist influx, time will be ripe to rethink our strategy.

Mr Tabone might again dispute all this, to which I will, with sincere regrets, reiterate my "I told you so".

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