Flying the flag

Air Malta's management and employees have good reason to be proud of the success they achieved this winter when for the first time the national airline carried 510,000 passengers at that time of year. One hopes that this operational success has been matched by an equal financial success because our airline's future ultimately depends on the financial viability of its operations.

The cooperation between management and the workers to restructure the company is essential to ensure that limited financial and human resources are utilised in the best way to bring about commercial success. As in every other company, changes are needed constantly to ensure that Air Malta remains nimble and responds effectively to the needs of the market in which it operates.

The introduction of low cost airlines was a daunting challenge for Air Malta, but the courage of the employees and the businesslike manner in which they confronted the task of improving efficiency, is indeed laudable. Of course, more efforts are needed to declare ultimate success. Running an airline business is always a high-risk venture. We only have to observe the tribulations being experienced by Alitalia employees to understand the difficulties of operating an airline business successfully.

Throughout its 35 years, Air Malta has responded well and successfully to the challenges of the airline business This underlines the versatility of its employees who have always endeavoured to adapt well to the changing trends in the airline business. The introduction of online booking, the improvement in the utilisation of aircraft, the upgrading of ancillary services, and the better marketing of our national airline's services, were all steps in the right direction.

Of course, many challenges remain. The slowdown in the EU economies, the strength of the euro, the high cost of fuel, and the generally sombre economic outlook for most western economies, makes the management of our national airline that much more challenging. Add to this the increasing competition from low-cost airlines, and one immediately understands how vitally important harmonious relations are between management and the workforce.

The government as the principal shareholder of Air Malta needs to do more to promote better strategies for the growth of our tourism industry. It would be wrong to expect that Air Malta be left on its own to promote the island in the European market. There is much more that needs to be done to improve the quality of our tourism product. Our hotels need to maintain high-level standards at all times, because this is what tourists expect and this is what they get from most of our competitors. One just has to log in on one of many tourist forums on the internet to realise that many of our hotels are unfortunately still failing miserably in maintaining high standards.

Other failures we need to address relate to the level of cleanliness on the island, the condition of our countryside, the cost of using our taxis and restaurants, as well as other services that tourists use when they visit us. There is too much complacency when it comes to ensuring that the product that we offer to our tourist customers is of the best quality. Air Malta is just one important link in the value chain of our tourism industry. We are proud about how Air Malta employees are flying the colours of our national airline. But this effort needs to be matched by the other stakeholders in this important industry.

Our Institute for Tourism Studies, for instance, needs to do more to ensure that students who decide to take up a career in the industry are better prepared to achieve professional excellence in whatever speciality they choose. These young people will be the cutting edge of our collective effort to make a visit to Malta memorable for all those who pay good money to visit us.

Training does not stop with the graduation of these youngsters. It is a life-long experience in every profession and our commitment to excellence has to be instilled in the minds of all our students from an early age. We need to imbue our children with a culture of service to those who pay for our future economic and personal success.

All this requires well-thought-out strategies which will be implemented over a period of time. Air Malta, after all, took more than 30 years to achieve the level of excellence it has now, and this after having to convince many a doubting Thomas about its long-term viability.

So let us be proud of our national airline, and wish its employees well for the future for their own benefit and that of our country.

Dr Mangion is the Labour spokesman on economy and finance.

cmangion@keyworld.net