Pilots' action causing delays, passenger hardship - Air Malta

Air Malta said yesterday that actions ordered by ALPA, the union representing its pilots, were causing delays, inconvenience to passengers, and higher costs.

The airline said an unofficial work to rule which was currently in progress was also harming the tourism industry at this crucial time when Malta and Air Malta were seeing a surge in tourism arrivals.

"ALPA's unofficial work to rule is generating flight delays and disruptions to the airline's operations," the airline said. "These actions are causing delays due to inflexibility of cockpit crew and not because the airline has a shortage of pilots. Air Malta insists that ALPA are delaying flights under the artificial pretext of pilot shortage."

Air Malta also gave a few examples. It said that on Friday, September 7, the Malta - Catania flight had to be delayed by an hour due to a technical delay on the KM100 flight to London Heathrow. The cockpit crew of this flight had to operate the Catania - London, Gatwick flight the following day. Rather than following the 10-hour legal rest limit, the crew elected to apply an increased rest of 14 hours as normally applied when no delay is in question - this just after operating the 25-minute one-sector flight from Malta to Catania. The 14-hour rest period that the cockpit crew took, meant that the Catania - London, Gatwick flight was delayed by three hours causing unnecessary inconvenience to passengers.

Another incident occurred on Sunday, September 9. The airline claimed that while it was trying to find replacements for crew who reported sick, other crew members on duty "refused to answer telephone calls", making themselves unreachable. This caused Air Malta to reroute its Malta - Paris passengers on other flights and deploy one of its UK-based aircraft to fly the Paris - Malta passengers with great inconvenience to the airline's passengers and with additional expenses to Air Malta.

The airline said that this summer its captains on the Airbus fleet worked a maximum average of 81 hours in the busiest month of August, in July they worked 78 hours while this month it is planned that they will work 77 hours. Captains on the Boeing fleet worked a maximum average of 65 hours in July, 73 hours in August, and it is planned that they will work 68 hours in September .

First Officers on the Airbus fleet flew a maximum average of 76 hours in July, 77 hours in August, and it is estimated that they will work 74 hours in September. First officers on the Boeing fleet flew a maximum average of 67 hours in August, 65 hours in July, and it is planned that they will work 68 hours in September.

"These figures clearly indicate that Air Malta pilots are working well below their legal limit of 100 flying hours per month," Air Malta said. "It is pertinent to note that these figures were registered in peak summer months when the airline has increased frequencies. Thus ALPA's claims that Air Malta is suffering from a shortage of pilots is unfounded. Other flight time limitations and obligations are also within legal limits."

It added that during these peak months Air Malta pilots took a total of 761 days of leave, averaging 1.7 days of leave per crew member per month.

The airline initiated negotiations with the unions six months before the expiry of the 'Rescue Plan' - its first proposal being an extension of the previous 'Rescue Plan' covering all unions. Since there was no agreement among the unions on the way forward as proposed by the airline, separate discussions with all unions were launched.