Airport slashes fuel handling fees

Malta International Airport has drastically reduced its fuel handling fees but a company spokesman ruled out the decision has anything to do with Air Malta’s restructuring.

In a company announcement on the stock exchange yesterday, MIA said it was cutting fuel handling charges by 80 per cent after the contract with its supplier expired on March 31.

The decision was announced 24 hours after Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said Air Malta’s suppliers would be expected to shoulder part of the burden in the airline’s restructuring process. He said all the airline’s supplier contracts were under scrutiny.

Air Malta is MIA’s largest client but a spokesman for the airport said the government was “not at all” involved in the decision to lower the fuel handling fees.

“There was no pressure whatsoever by the government,” he said when asked whether MIA was pressured into taking the decision. MIA said it had issued a fuel ground handling tender and revised its fuel handling fees downward to €2.60 per 1,000 litres from €12.50. As a result, the airport company will see its annual revenue drop by some €1.2 million.