It was indeed surprising to read Matthew Xuereb's report 'Flight delayed after Muscat's late arrival' on the front page of The Sunday Times (May 23).

First, your newspaper said Labour leader Joseph Muscat and his wife left their children in economy class, while they travelled in business class. This is untrue.

The truth is that Dr Muscat's children were never separated from their parents and sat with them throughout the flight. Photos taken by Emirates staff, which were made available to The Sunday Times, show this.

Secondly, your newspaper said Dr Muscat and his family arrived late at the VIP lounge and delayed the aircraft departure.

The truth is Dr Muscat and his family arrived at the airport's VIP Lounge at 3.10 p.m. and had sufficient time to be transferred to the aircraft that was due to take off at 3.40 pm.

After waiting for quite a while in the lounge, giving ample time for video and photos of the children playing and watching taxiing aircraft from the lounge to be taken, the family were called to board.

There are timed video and photos of the children playing while waiting to be called, access to which has been shown to this newspaper.

Editor's note:
We stand by our assertion that the Emirates flight was delayed because the Labour leader arrived late. However, in the story we did not make it clear that the children were permitted to sit with their parents during the course of the flight. Any inconvenience caused by this omission on our part is sincerely regretted.