Air Malta stands by redundancy scheme

Air Malta said this afternoon that if the targets it had set for itself in the current Voluntary Redundancy Scheme were not achieved, it would have to take other measures to assure itself of a sustainable future.

Reacting to a statement issued last week by the GWU, the airline did not say what its targets were. It insisted however, that the union was mistaken when it claimed that its first such scheme, in 2006, had led to a brain drain. The first scheme had seen 160 employees leave the company. Since then the airline had employed 20 people, of whom only one was a a direct result of the scheme, the airline said.

The scheme, however had helped Air Malta to reduce its wage bill, and thus be able to offer more competitive prices.

Air Malta said it had had to reintroduce the scheme because of the precarious situation the airline industry was going through, first because of high oil prices, and now because of the global financial situation. Air Malta was no different and was being impacted in the same way as other airlines.