A well-prepared flight plan all should follow

It was bound to happen. The proposed restructuring plan to save Air Malta had been under the spotlight for months on end. It was, of course, a matter of great interest to airline employees and their families in particular but also to the people in general.

The national carrier offers more than good jobs to so many; it also has a crucial role to play in the island’s economy. So the longer the powers-that-be opted to keep the details of the plan under wraps the bigger the danger of a leak. And the contents did leak last weekend, ironically just hours after the airline’s CEO met workers to brief them on what was going on but avoiding certain details, including the more controversial job-shedding plans in each department.

When details of the plan appeared in The Sunday Times, Air Malta was quick to say that the published draft report was not based on the finalised version submitted to the European Commission. “The final report contains amendments that were not reflected in the article and do not mirror the current thinking on the way forward.” It did not specify, however, how and where the leaked document differentiated from the one sent to Brussels. It also noted that the 190 loaders mentioned in the newspaper report referred to the whole ground operations division and not to the number to be laid off.

Yet, since then, there have been no outright denials of the information published so far. Still, neither Air Malta nor the government, the main shareholder, seem willing to make any formal declarations of what their plans are, much less publish the document submitted to the European Commission.

Airline CEO Peter Davies says the document cannot be released because “it contains commercially sensitive information which will only benefit our competitors”. That may well indeed be the case but, surely, there are a lot of details that can be safely published. The alternative is to give rise to suspicions and antagonise all stakeholders, including workers’ representatives, as has already been the case.

The predicament facing Air Malta today can be blamed on many quarters but the can must really be carried by the main shareholder, the government, which, along the years and irrespective of the party in power, considered the national carrier as a milch cow to curry favours and secure votes. But now it is useless pointing fingers at anybody. What is imperative is that all stakeholders realise the mammoth task they are facing and be willing to put their heads together and pull at the same rope. Sacrifices will have to be made too if the airline is to be saved, for the good of the workers themselves and the country.

Common sense must prevail and, while there will understandably be some sabre rattling, the worst that can happen is to shoot from the hip and only focus on sectoral interests.

Now is the time for Air Malta and/or the government to take the people in their confidence and put the record straight with regard to their plans about the airline’s future, of course, being careful not to damage it commercially.

The employees would then be in a better position to weigh their future and act accordingly. Their representatives, the unions, have enough experience and responsibility to proceed in a way that does not harm the company, its staff and the country at such a delicate moment of its life. A good flight plan can take you places.