When arrogance takes flight

When The Sunday Times reported that the then Gozo Channel chairman had called a ferry back as it departed so that he could board, he was obviously not too happy about it. But he did the decent thing and stepped down – as someone in his position would be expected to do. Equally important, he went with good grace and no recriminations were forthcoming.

Compare and contrast that, as the worst examination essay questions would say, with the actions of Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) president Domenic Azzopardi who has been unashamedly indignant.

The newspaper was only doing its job. After learning that several passengers had complained because the flight left 30 minutes late in a delay caused by Mr Azzopardi and his family, we took up the matter. Air Malta confirmed that it had launched an internal investigation to establish the facts and said it was taking the incident “very seriously”.

As is our duty, we contacted Mr Azzopardi for his version of events. He confirmed that the flight had departed late – indeed, the passenger air bridge had already been disconnected from the aircraft when the decision to delay was taken – but he brushed off the incident, saying it was normal procedure for the airline to wait for VIPs and passengers.

He then went two steps further: first, he accused the airline of getting back at him because ALPA had just declared an industrial dispute over the way pilots were excluded from Air Malta’s decision-making process. In doing this he was quite oblivious to the plain fact that paying passengers had complained.

Secondly, he made an attempt to attack us, suggesting that we only carried the story because the current Air Malta chairman serves as a non-executive director on the board of the company that publishes The Times. This is as cheap as attacks can get.

This newspaper has been around long enough, and has the credibility that it has, because the people who read it know full well that what distinguishes us is a principle established by our co-founder, Mabel Strickland, which is that editors are the ones who make editorial decisions. No one else.

What’s worse is that ALPA made the same fallacious accusation, perhaps not realising that it was undermining its own credibility by doing so.

For starters, since he heads the organisation the charge could easily be levelled that he twisted the association’s arm; indeed, it can only be assumed that any public statement made by ALPA must go through him. And it issued such a statement without taking the time to establish any facts.

Air Malta reacted almost immediately by saying that it was in possession of “categorical documented evidence” to ascertain the facts – which confirmed the comments and complaints received from passengers on board the flight.

But there is, perhaps, a bigger issue at stake: have we really reached a stage where a person who delays the departure of a flight cannot even have the courtesy to apologise for the inconvenience to passengers? None of the comments made by Mr Azzopardi, nor ALPA, contained a single word in relation to the customers they are supposed to serve.

Quite the contrary, the tone suggested causing a delay was almost a divine right. We are not saying Mr Azzopardi should leave his job – in any case, that is Air Malta’s business – but the very least he could have done was demonstrate a little of the honour displayed by the former Gozo Channel chairman.