Air Malta and its pilots agreed on a new pay deal early yesterday morning after days of escalating tensions and hours after the cancellation of a Manchester-bound flight.
What we want is mutual respect and an end to intimidation
“We have decided to draw a line and start afresh,” pilots’ association (Alpa) president Domenic Azzopardi told The Sunday Times.
In a joint press statement issued shortly after 1 a.m., Air Malta and Alpa said they had concluded “long but productive” discussions on a new four-year collective agreement, starting January 1.
The negotiated agreement “meets the requirements of the restructuring plan and is in line with the financial cost constraints of the company”.
“The agreement covers new conditions and pay for the pilot workforce, which will lead to greater productivity and efficiencies. Furthermore, both parties agreed that they will continue to work together towards a common objective of securing Air Malta’s future for the benefit of our employees, customers and the country,” the statement read.
It added that the Air Malta board and Alpa’s members would now have to approve the agreement in the coming days.
When contacted, Air Malta refused to comment further and no details of the cost involved emerged.
The airline also declined to state how much Friday night’s cancelled flight to Manchester would cost Air Malta. Another flight to Russia was also delayed.
Captain Azzopardi, who is under investigation for allegedly causing the delay of an Air Malta flight from Milan last month, maintained a positive tone throughout.
“There have been some very strong declarations in the past days, but that is due to lack of communication,” he said, adding that this led to a lack of trust.
Capt. Azzopardi said he could not reveal the contents of the new collective agreement but maintained pilots agreed to be more flexible with the airline’s restructuring process, while the company promised to involve pilots.
“There was goodwill on both sides. What we want is mutual respect and an end to intimidation,” he said.
With better communication, he added, pilots would not need to resort to the media as they were forced to do recently and the company could communicate directly with the pilots.
“Some comments were made due to this lack of communication. Now this has stopped. We already saw an improvement today... Ultimately, we just want to give a better service to the passengers to contribute to the airline’s better future.”
Alpa registered a dispute with Air Malta last week. It said the new collective agreement was two years overdue and certain conditions in the expired agreement were “inadequate in today’s circumstances”.
It ordered pilots to work under the terms of their existing collective agreement after the airline, it said, stopped talks on a new one. It had also called for the airline’s CEO, Peter Davies, to resign.