600 KM workers must go – minister

Air Malta will have to shed some 600 employees if it is to become a viable airline, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech confirms in an interview today.

Reports that the restructuring plan would call for the airline to effectively halve its workforce appeared in the media in recent weeks.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Mr Fenech confirms the figure and says “we can only compete if we run a leaner organisation”.

He says redeployment and early retirement schemes would be offered to workers, and insists that the government will “take care” of the workers, as it did in other restructuring exercises.

Mr Fenech says around €70 million is required to transform the airline’s losses into a “sufficient” profit.

He defends the restructuring plan being mapped out by business consultants Ernst and Young before being submitted to the European Commission in May.

The finance minister says the restructuring programme had already slashed costs, and the losses for the last financial year for Air Malta are expected to be below the €50 million originally predicted, though still significantly high.

A new Air Malta chief executive officer will be appointed in the coming days, with a choice between three individuals, he says.

The minister also describes the Labour Party’s decision to hold a news conference about Air Malta as hugely irresponsible and intended only to score political points.

He also says other airlines had expressed interest in teaming up with Air Malta but that they preferred to see the airline first resolve its problems before taking talks further.