Evacuees arrive in Grand Harbour, speak of their experiences

Alex Hilton

Feb 25th 2011, 21:53

Now - The people that operate the ferry and get the people out of there - great job! I would not have the balls to do that, I do admit.

And again: Why do "normal" people and private companies have to go and risk their lives to rescue Americans ? This is a job for the armies of this world. They are trained for this. They have the resources for this. For the 2010 fiscal year, the president's base budget of the Department of Defense rose to $533.8 billion. Adding spending on "overseas contingency operations" brings the sum to $663.8 billion. 663.800.000.0000 , ok US Dollars, but it is a huge amount of money.

There is clearly enough evidence in Tripoli at the moment to warrant an intervention by Nato or US, but not really by Virtuferries.

I wonder how that would go down, if the ferry is blown out of the water by some idiots, or taken hostage, whilst the mega billion army carriers are cruising the caribic on a vacation?
I think something going wrong here.

Joe Borg

Feb 25th 2011, 22:06

our pleasure Zachary.

Anton Zammit

Feb 25th 2011, 22:13

We are very proud to help Americans and all other nations for that matter. You are very welcome. Heartfelt support to the Libyan people in their justified fight for freedom. Malta and its people are with you.

david galea

Feb 25th 2011, 21:37

Tony, I thought so too, however, I then found out that their insurance cost for each flight flying into a warzone must.be ridiculous, so in actual fact I would assume that they didn't put up their prices by more than 20 % or so..

Justin Spiteri

Feb 25th 2011, 21:39

Insurance agencies that insure planes in flight pushed up insurance coverage for "one flight into war zone Libya" to about 80K EUR i've heard on a radio station... I strongly believe it's not the Airline that is a Jackal, but insurances.

Joseph Vassallo

Feb 25th 2011, 21:39

Did you not read about the additional insurance that Air Malta had to pay because of the added risks? €25,000 is the figure being talked about so maybe it is their insurers you should be criticising.

C Cassar

Feb 25th 2011, 21:43

William Hague was commenting on the high prices being charged by airlines flying direct to the UK from Tripoli. He said that when there is large demand, prices go up but when it's life or death does it really matter?

So, it's not just Air Malta but the airline industry in general. I'm sure this also applies to those being transferred by sea.

Remember, all of these people were in Libya out of choice, they new a dictator was in charge and that the country has always been unstable from a political perspective.

Air Malta are just doing their job of running their business as were the peoplle in Libya doing their job and earning their money.

clive borg

Feb 25th 2011, 21:52

at least our airline, Air Malta continued operating while the other big ones stopped operating before ....

S Bonnici

Feb 25th 2011, 22:04

While everyone on CNN and Sky praise Malta, Air Malta and its people for all the help given to all nationals, you a fellow Maltese have to do your best to put down our National Airline. Maybe before you start rambling you should read the following:

"One of the people on the Crisis Intervention Team, who represented the airline’s insurers, said that Libya had been declared a war zone and as a result the premium the airline had to pay for each flight had shot up.

It was pointed out that pilots and crew operating to Libya were doing so voluntarily."

If the flights had been given for free I am sure you would have grumbled that we were paying for them from our taxes!

Grow up!!

D. A . Agius

Feb 25th 2011, 22:05

In these cases, what's happening is that airplanes are going empty to come back with passengers, so double prices are already understandable.

Judging by the risk factor, it's already very good that the CIVILIAN staff has actually carried on flying. If you haven't noticed, few others are flying there and the risks again, are high.

Should an aircraft be targeted whilst at the airport, who's going to pay for damage?

Well done to the courageous who are operating the services.

Sky news should ask for Ryanair or Easyjet to operate the flights.

R. CUSCHIERI

Feb 25th 2011, 22:08

It would seem that the hefty increase in airfares is mainly due to an even heftier increase in the insurance premium covering aircraft flying to war/dangerous zones. A figure of an extra USD 80,000 per trip has been mentioned. If this is the case Air Malta should publicize this fact to avoid ensuing negative publicity.