Air Malta who’s who explained

It had the makings of a tele­novela, with Air Malta chief executive officer Peter Davies ap­pointing a friend to carry out the restructuring exercise, who then appointed a business partner as human resources manager.

The appointments raised eyebrows and on Sunday Labour leader Joseph Muscat asked the government to explain what was going on at Air Malta.

But Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday sought to set the record straight, insisting the national airline had engaged an Australian management company on a six-month contract to help the airline restructure and the new appointments were linked to the company.

After the appointment of Mr Davies three months ago, the airline last week announced the appointment of Australian-born Ray Hart as chief restructuring officer.

The government press release announcing Mr Hart’s appointment gave the impression he was engaged directly.

A few days later in an internal e-mail Mr Hart appointed Neale Anderson as human resources manager.

Mr Hart and Mr Anderson are business partners in Catalise Ltd – a management company involved in various restructuring exercises in the aviation industry – and the company website also lists a testimonial by Mr Davies when he was chief executive officer of SN Brussels Airlines.

Asked about the series of appointments, Mr Fenech yesterday said the implication that there was “a friends of friends” network was based on the wrong premise.

He said Air Malta had engaged Catalise to help in the management of the restructuring exercise rather than the individual people.

The company’s contract, Mr Fenech added, was a temporary one to fill key management posts that were currently vacant.

“The company also has a brief to train Maltese people who will be able to take over,” Mr Fenech said, insisting that Air Malta had to restructure but still remain functional.

“This is a critical time and it is important that the airline has the right people to manage the restructuring process since this will be one of the issues the European Commission will evaluate when considering the restructuring plan,” Mr Fenech said.

The restructuring process, which could see the airline shed as many as 600 employees, will start immediately irrespective of the Commission’s final approval of the plan.

There is no clear indication yet about when the Commission will conclude its assessment of the plan submitted by the government last month.