Cabin Crew union explains Moscow flight issue

The Union of Cabin Crew this afternoon apologied to passengers who suffered many hours of delay after it refused to grant a one-hour extension to a crew operating a flight to Moscow last week.

The dispute was sparked after five cabin crew refused to operate the flight, insisting that the fact that the plane would depart 18 minutes behind schedule would mean that their statutory flying time would be exceeded by three minutes. As a result, a 16-hour delay was caused.

Reacting to Air Malta statements on the costs it could incur as a result of the delays, the union also said in a statement that the flexibility of cabin crews had over the past months saved the airline millions of euro.

It said that increased productivity and flexibility had been agreed in the 2003 Rescue Plan to help the airline back on it s feet after several blunders which had cost it millions. The decision was also taken in view of increased competition.

The union said that new EU regulations came into force in July 2008 limiting the working hours of pilots and cabin crew. This was of benefit to the employees but constituted a restriction to the company, the union said. However an agreement could be reached to minimise its negative effects. Yet talks on a revised collective agreement had been ongoing for 17 months.

"We cannot accept Air Malta’s accusations of problems cropping up from time to time when calculating these flight time limitations. It is Air Malta management's duty to see that flights such as those to Moscow are scheduled at appropriate times so as not to run the risk of having to cancel. It is also the company’s management responsibility to have enough manpower to cover for these instances."

The union said flight time limitations were there to be adhered to by the minute. However, if cabin crew were physically capable, extensions were normally granted. It was useless to give extensions when one ran the risk of causing further problems, such as an aircraft on ground in a foreign country.

The Moscow flight had already been granted a one hour extension.

"The UCC had directed its members to give only one hour of extension and not two hours, after Air Malta failed to pay sustenance lay over allowance (an allowance given when grew overnight on the ground abroad) to employees who had a technical stop last Autumn," the union said.

Following conciliation talks a temporary agreement was reached and it hoped that a permanent solution would be found shortly.