Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday the government should subsidise the Gozo-Malta helicopter service because it was essential for the sister island's economy.

The government "did not want the service to continue", he alleged.

Helicopteros del Sureste, the Spanish company that operated the helicopter service between Malta International Airport and Xewkija since March 27 last year, stopped the service at the end of October because of lack of demand. The company decided to pack up and leave after its request for a subsidy was not met by the government.

Speaking outside the Gozo heliport, Dr Sant accused the government of resorting to a "strategy of imbeciles" when it refused to subsidise the service, especially since EU regulations had changed so that governments could subsidise air travel to peripheral islands.

"The government must state how it expected the service to be viable without subsidies, otherwise we would have no other option but to think that the decision was taken to favour those who have an interest to build an airport in Gozo," Dr Sant claimed.

The Opposition Leader said Communications Minister Censu Galea and Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono had repeatedly declared that HeliSureste was the best company to run the service. The government had also said it was discussing with Viset, the company operating Valletta Waterfront, so that flights taking cruise passengers from Valletta to Gozo would become possible.

But none of these promises materialised and the government had failed to attract the 50,000 additional tourists it had promised. Its wrong decisions meant that tourist operators, especially in Gozo, were losing business fast.

Proof that the expensive fare of Lm50 was to blame for the lack of demand over the past two years was the fact that whereas the Spanish company had carried only 10,000 passengers in its first year of operation, the old helicopter, which was heavily subsidised, had carried 40,000 passengers in its last year of flights.