Flying over or across the channel?

In the span of time during which it was running, the inter-island helicopter service has proved to be quite a tenacious performer. About 16 years of almost continuous service is not a mean achievement in the circumstances, even though with an ever-improving ferry service and better roads, the air connection has lost some of its importance, price considerations apart.

In the early 1990s, the service started with a modern helicopter conforming to EU regulations. Fares then, like today, were on the high side. Because there is simply no way of having a cheap helicopter service, ever, anywhere, let alone one abiding by strict safety regulations. So the service then, despite heavy support by the government, too had to be inevitably curtailed.

Then came the breakthrough that ensured the more or less continuous running of the service for the next decade or so, courtesy of the fall of Communism, of all things. This came about when Air Malta, through its subsidiary Malta Air Charter, operated with helicopters wet leased from Bulgaria. This was the deal that proved the sustainability of the service until time caught up with the old machines and EU membership meant safety regulations had to prevail over all other considerations.

The cheaper fares charged during this period of the service were still heavily subsided. Still, quite heavy losses were registered year after year.

Comparisons with other attempts at joining the islands in different forms could be pertinent.

The hydrofoil service attempted in the early 1960s never really took off mainly due to high fare, lack of frequency and poor reliability due to its inability to operate in weather conditions other seacraft, including Gozo ferries, could overcome.

In the 1990s Gozo Channel experimented with the catamaran service which offered a comfortable crossing. This service managed to survive somewhat longer probably due to heavy subsidisation.

The common factor in the two examples above and the helicopter service is the high velocity manner of hopping from one island to the other. But high velocity always comes at a price and high volume concurrence is a make or break factor. In all three examples, the odds were heavily stacked against any prospect of sustainability.

These cases offer substantial proof that our two minuscule islands, with yet no prospects of high volume movement using these inherently exclusive forms of travel, can only dream on. Mentioning dream, one wonders how some still harbour mirages of a bridge or tunnel joining the islands. No one's right to dream should be denied, but when the Eurotunnel, joining the UK with continental Europe, is €10 billion in the red, it makes one wonder that there are still those among us who persist with such nonsensical proposals.

The naïve perception that a bridge or tunnel are just different options of travel is proof of the lack of serious debate on the subject compounded with an impulsive urge to "improve our lot" without delving deeper into our country's possibilities and limitations, both financial and demographic. To even consider any type of high velocity travel as a substitute to bus and ferryboat is highly immature of those who dream on such lines. And the media has a duty to educate in such matters, instead of sometimes hyping wild suggestions.

To get back to the actual situation, while the helicopter service was buying time with the old helicopters, the competition was not sitting it out. In the 1990s the Mgarr - Cirkewwa ferry service was operated with a fleet of disparate vessels that must have challenged the company to provide a decent service. The same service is now performed with large state-of-the art custom-built vessels. A quality leap of immeasurable proportion has come about in the service. The lack of complaints, which used to be numerous in the past, attests to this huge improvement.

In a few months' time the completion of shore facilities in the form of the new terminal at Mgarr Harbour and later at Cirkewwa should further contribute towards making the trip more congenial from arrival at either terminal until disembarkation on the other side.

Another improvement has come about through increased berthing facilities at both ends and the extension of the breakwater arm at Cirkewwa. Now, two vessels are able to berth simultaneously at both ends and this has shrunk the occasions when, in bad weather, the service has to be operated from Sa Maison.

All these pluses are complemented with safer and more pleasant road transport. The roads from Burmarrad all the way to Gudja have been completely reconstructed. Soon, with the completion of the St Paul's bypass, only the Mellieha bypass and Marfa Road would still need re-making to join Cirkewwa and Malta International Airport.

With practically round the clock connection of the islands, the pull of the helicopter option has gradually been further eroded. Even if the fare charged had to be reduced to be considered more competitive, the results would never render it commercially viable anyway. The fact is that the vastly-improved ferry service will eventually render an air service a luxury and emergency service.

Nonetheless, it is good news to learn that preparations are at hand for an airstrip to accommodate small aircraft at Xewkija. This does not entail simply the mere extension of the helipad and will present some steep technical hurdles to overcome. But if a fixed-wing service with a schedule connection to MIA's more popular international flights is introduced, operating otherwise on an aero taxi basis, it might survive as long as ground support is forthcoming through the government and interested parties in tourism too. As the government itself has shown that the AFM was interested to develop a runway when it applied to do just that 11 years ago, it is not a question of building the strip exclusively for the air service. So, if this were to happen and the AFM would operate the ground facilities, the chances for a civilian air connection would improve. And Gozo would have permanently opened another door to welcome visitors that the island so needs for a sustainable tourism industry.