The Opposition spokesman for tourism, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, has urged the government to hold talks with Air Malta and the tourism industry on ways how it could help them recover quickly from the losses they made in the week when air travel was disrupted by the Icelandic ash cloud.
Ms Coleiro Preca praised Air Malta for its efforts to help stranded passengers but said this crisis had come at a bad time for tourism, which was still reeling from months of financial losses because of the international financial crisis and the increase in oil prices.
The PL spokesman said that other countries were already considering compensation to the tourism industry, something which was allowed under EU talks, and the Maltese governemnt too should give its support for the national airline and the tourism sector to recover as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, The Times Business reported today that volcanic ash cloud crisis has cost Air Malta hundreds of thousands of euros in lost revenue every day.
“The preliminary estimate of the financial impact on Air Malta runs into hundreds of thousands euros in lost revenue each day of the crisis. Moreover, this crisis can also have an impact of future bookings which were picking up for summer,” Air Malta CEO Joe Cappello said.
Europe yesterday started to reopen its skies almost a week after the eruption of an Icelandic volcano grounded most planes. About 75 per cent of European flights operated yesterday, according to the air traffic agency Eurocontrol.
At least 95,000 flights were cancelled in the past six days, and the air transport group IATA says the disruptions cost the industry $1.7 billion.
Air Malta yesterday operated its scheduled flights to and from Zurich, Frankfurt, Berlin Tegel, Manchester, Brussels, Heathrow, Rome-Reggio, Geneva-Catania, Milan, Gatwick and Gatwick-Marseille and also introduced extra flights to Gatwick and Zurich in an effort to quickly reduce the backlog of stranded passengers.
Mr Cappello said Air Malta has been flying a very restricted programme since April 15 due to the cloud of volcanic ash over northern Europe.
“Most of the flights from Malpensa northwards were cancelled. For the last few days we have operated a number of extra flights to Rome, Graz, Marseilles, Zurich, and Toulouse. Today the situation is a bit better with the airspace over Europe slowly opening up,” he said.
Mr Cappello said Air Malta has made alternative arrangements for cargo stuck in Frankfurt by trucking it to other airports currently serviced by KM.
“In fact we are making use of all available flights, namely, Rome, Marseille, Toulouse and Rome.
“Yesterday afternoon we finalised trucking arrangement arrangements to Zurich where we operated a flight. Even courier from London Heathrow yesterday was shipped via Zurich,” he said.
Mr Cappello said this was all possible due to the fact since last Friday the airline has operated over 45 relief flights to mainland Europe.
Airt Malta’s CEO said the backlog of flights could take days to be cleared and over the last few days Air Malta has beefed up its resources at customer contact points.
“Our MIA sales offices had a full complement of frontline staff that had the backing of additional staff from head office. Our call centre was also beefed up with additional staff and extended its services until midnight and opened up a 5 a.m. seven days a week.
“We have honoured all Air Malta tickets as well as those of our code-share partners, and we have offered passengers free rebooking and change of class fees as well as re-routings to different airports,” he said.
PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES HIT
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are among the worst hit by the ash cloud crisis, as they faced a “desperate” situation and risked losing business to non-EU competition, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry told The Times Business. The closure of European airspace has had a far-reaching effect on the business community, although the Chamber said it was premature to quantify the financial consequences. Chamber members whose business relied on just-in-time exports or their physical presence abroad were especially hit. Many businesses suffered the inconvenience of having key team members stranded overseas.
“In terms of imports and exports, many sectors depend more heavily on maritime and road transport, which has not been affected,” the Chamber said. “Unfortunately, those companies which depend on air transport and couriers, including some large manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies have been at the mercy of this unfortunate crisis.
“Members from pharma companies have informed the Malta Chamber that this problem is currently their greatest difficulty, as pharmaceuticals are always transported by air since they have a tight expiry date. The airspace closure has created great havoc amongst product delivery with delays of weeks. The situation is a desperate one in this sector and the risk of losing clients to non-EU competitors is high.”
The Chamber pointed out the best alternative solution at the moment was to deploy goods to Italy by ship and then by truck to the client. This solution, however, drastically prolonged times of delivery as the bottlenecks caused by traffic being diverted towards these routes have lengthened the delays.
“Importers of medicines are facing a similar situation,” the Chamber added. “Companies abroad are trying to find a way to send the goods to Malta. Unfortunately vehicular transport is not as efficient, and will still cause delays. In terms of medicines stock, this too has been affected, in particular specific medicines, where the medicine’s equivalent is available but the patient’s prescribed medicine is not.”
The Chamber said the tourism sector seems to have been negatively affected as more tourists whose stay had expired somehow found a route out of the island than tourists who were due to arrive did not.
George Micallef, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, held a similar view.
“When the crisis occurred, numerous hotel guests were affected due to the cancellation of flights,” he said. “However, once Air Malta put on extra flights to airports that remained open, most guests took the option of the alternative route and left albeit later than their scheduled departure. Although we do not have precise figures, undoubtedly, the lost bednights by far exceeds any gained bed-nights as a result of stranded passenger remaining in Malta.”
Mr Micallef said “no-shows” were difficult to quantify but estimated up to 40,000 arrivals had been lost.
“Between Thursday and Monday, 434 flights were cancelled. If one were to calculate that half of these were in-bound, these will equate to around 20,000 arrivals. One would then need to add the substantial cancellations we received for arrivals this week due to the uncertainty created because of the crisis and because of further flight cancellations, which can easily amount to a further 15,000 to 20,000 lost arrivals. These, are of course estimates, but lost nights are without any doubt substantial,” he stressed.
Mr Micallef added the association expected a short-term negative effect on travel until flight schedules returned to normal but did not foresee any effect in the run-up to peak season “as long as we do not have any similar occurrences in the coming months”.
Maltapost plc confirmed yesterday that mail backlog at Malta International Airport involved mail received since last Thursday destined to mainland Europe and UK.
“We are continuously seeking alternative routes to enable delivery of all mail items, in liaison with main airlines operating from MIA and other trucking services operating in mainland Europe,” the postal company told The Times Business.
“Backlog will be immediately delivered once airline connections return to normal or alternative connections including by road are arranged,” it said.
In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, Maltapost said: “Outgoing mail is being processed normally and dispatched to the airport for it to start its outbound journey as soon as alternative routes become available, or flights resume. MaltaPost is continuing to deploy and review its contingency plans with the collaboration of various airlines, trucking services and foreign postal administrations, to keep as much of the customers’ mail moving and delivered in the shortest time possible.”
Meanwhile, Malta International Airport said it lost between 30,000 and 35,000 passengers over this last week. According to MIA’s spokesperson, this represents a two thirds decrease in passenger movements.