It was a pleasure flying with Ryanair on their first Bremen to Malta flight loaded with German families. It was an equal pleasure, a week before, flying with Air Malta on another plane-load of Germans from Malta to Hamburg. It seems that the advent of low-cost airlines has helped Air Malta to compete, fly to more destinations and fill up its planes. Half-empty Air Malta flights were the norm for the last couple of years. Thanks to the perseverance of our tourism minister, against opposition from a number of parties, maybe even other Cabinet ministers, low-cost travel and a much healthier national airline are slowly becoming a reality.

It was however very disappointing, upon my return to Malta, to read Norman Hamilton's article on Thursday in which he seems to be irritated at the popularity of low-cost carriers, both with foreigners and Maltese. He also fears that the jobs of Air Malta and travel agents staff may be at risk. Maybe Air Malta and travel agents have been having it too good at the expense of Maltese independent travellers.

Mr Hamilton conveniently ignores the fact that not all Maltese prefer travelling with other herds of Maltese to Lourdes or the concrete jungle of Lloret del Mar, each prominently carrying their travel agent's bag on pre-arranged tours, leaving and returning in the middle of the night and waking up early in the morning to follow the pre-organised excursions. These independent Maltese travellers had been paying exorbitant fares with Air Malta, which sometimes even reached Lm180 per person, for years. Now it is possible for a couple to travel at a price of Lm100 both with Air Malta and other airlines.

And what about underserved destinations? To fly to Spain between November and June, you had either to take two flights with a foreign airline or book a chartered flight with a travel agent, for which the agent would charge not less than Lm130 per head, probably making a hefty profit. In the meantime, Air Malta was losing on independent travelling with half-empty scheduled flights and Maltese using other airlines to fly to underserved destinations. It was such practices which were endangering not only the livelihood of Air Malta employees, but also of other employees in tourism, such as hotels. Malta was also losing tourists from these underserved destinations. As soon as Clickair starting flying from Barcelona this summer, the presence of Spanish tourists was immediately recognisable.

The government might have tackled the subsidies issue better, by putting pressure on MIA to reduce landing fees to all airlines, instead of forking out subsidies. But overall, Maltese families, Air Malta and the whole tourism industry seem to have benefited from the advent of low-cost airlines and the resulting competition.

Labour's stand on low-cost airlines, as with a number of other issues, is still unclear. Labour has until now generally adopted a fear from change attitude on a number of issues, such as EU membership and a free and competitive market. If elected, will it continue on this government's policy or turn the clock back and protect Air Malta at all costs, to the detriment of Maltese travellers, Air Malta itself and the whole tourism industry? A clear stand might enlighten the electorate.