Air Malta chairman to step down in May
Air Malta chairman Louis Farrugia has announced he will step down in May. Writing in The Times, he says his decision has nothing to do with the election and he told the Prime Minister about it in September.
Mr Farrugia said that although the airline still faces a daunting task to become viable, significant progress has been made and it is on the right course. The anticipated operating loss for the year to March 13, 2013 will be around €16 million, an improvement of €14 million over results of the previous year.
He goes into detail on what the airline has been through, and says that incentivising low cost airlines to compete against routes that Air Malta already covers (without any specific aid) is not the right strategy going forward.
Full story in The Times.
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m farrugia
Jan 17th, 19:15
let's not forget from where we started before low cost airlines came - airmalta flying chairmen & their families for free whilst charging us 400 euros for a ticket. resulting in airmalta flying brand new empty aircraft and emtpy hotels and beaches. On the contary now we have a multitude of hotels , taxi companies, sightseeing companies all bursting with tourists and airmalta flying full planes
m farrugia
Jan 17th, 18:52
hands off low cost airlines mr farrugia. you'll leave & probably keep on enjoying free ticets for all your family whlst we mortals pay 400 euros each for a short flight with amalta, as was the case in 2003 when louis grech was chairman & whilst airmalta flew brand new empty planes, he boasted that amalta was ready for competition.now a family of 4 pays less than 400 euros for a flight with ryanair
Frank Zammit
Jan 17th, 16:27
(2) if the Gov's policy on tourism is that based on the low cost tourist, then he should say so, like that people investing in the tourist industry will have a clear picture on how and where to invest. But Air Malta is not there just to carry tourist. It's there to give a service that no low cost airline will give simply because it may not be profitable for them to do so.
Frank Zammit
Jan 17th, 16:19
(1) Joseph Aquilina it's not the number of tourists that matter but the revenue that is generated by these tourists. If you want to wear a blindfold thus refusing to see reality - be my guest. But with all due respect, arguments like yours only serve to underline the limited knowledge you have about crucial contribution that AirMalta makes to maintain a reliable link with the rest Europe.
Victor Vella
Jan 17th, 15:48
It is a custom that every chairmen at Air Malta gives his resignation before any general election. I do not know why not so. It seems that Air Malta`s chairman does not know what is happening at Air Malta. Air Malta cancelled flights that now are operated by low cost.So what are those LCC competing against routes KM already covers?. This nonsense is just a banal excuse of incompetence.
Philip Lingard
Jan 17th, 14:31
Getting MIA to charge the same fees that other equivalent airports charge is the way forwards. But then Air Malta would lose its hidden protection from competition which the extremely high MIA fees provide.
Peter Murray
Jan 17th, 13:02
Contrary to Mr Farrugia's opinion it is thanks to LCC's- and these alone-that Malta has managed to register a record a record number of tourists last year.Lest we forget, Air Malta(under his professional Chairmanship) still registered losses before these LCC's started operating to Malta and that moreover,these LCC's provide a lot or employment to Maltese citizens.
kenny greenan
Jan 17th, 12:05
Perhaps, under new leadership, Air Malta will see the light & resume Scottish & north or England routes, which are being run very profitably be Easy jet & Ryanair.
But then again that would be a positive decision, increasing tourism & revenue for Malta, that would be silly ! !
Kenny Greenan
Edinburgh & Mellieha
Joseph Aquilina
Jan 17th, 12:16
Did you know that Malta had a record number of tourists this year?
Joseph Aquilina
Jan 17th, 12:23
* last year
Peter Murray
Jan 17th, 12:37
Not from Scotland they never!
Claris Galea
Jan 17th, 12:41
Mr Aquilina , if you sell at a loss , a record number means a record loss !!! :-)
Byron Abela
Jan 17th, 13:35
Dream on. Air Malta has long abandoned Scotland.
Pippo de Marco
Jan 17th, 15:13
I can understand the disappointment of Scottish flyers, but that was an economic decision. However, what I cannot understand is why AM reduced its flights to and from Manchester; its second busiest route.
AM's give-away was quickly gobbled up by Easyjet whose Manchester flights are almost always full.
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 16:29
Pippo, the busiest does not mean profitable ..... maybe that;s why.
Frank Zammit
Jan 17th, 12:02
Dearest Simon, take note.........unfortunately AIR MALTA is not out of the woods. Meaning it's not making a profit nor balancing it's books and with your Party's attitude of subsidiesing its competition, Air Malta has no chance of ever making it out of stormy waters. Perhaps it suits some people well that Air Malta goes under; destroy the last icon of the Labour legacy.
Joseph John Camilleri
Jan 17th, 15:54
PL or PN and whoever it is or was AM would still be run at a loss. Many airlines larger than AM have floundered because of high costs and price of fuel. Just look at most of Europe's and American airlines which are big enough to gobble AM. BA, Iberia, Alitalia, TWA, Pan Am, and many more are typical of the present airline difficulties. Cuc or no cuc AM would not be out of the woods.
Frank Zammit
Jan 17th, 16:51
Mr Camilleri it's not the high fuel cost that is ruining AirMalta but bad commercial/political decisions. You are aware that the LOW COST AIRLINES buy their fuel at the same price AirMalta does and they also fly the same Airways as AirMalta therefore they pay the same charges. The truth; AirMalta is paying the price for giving a service that LOW COST Airlines will never give + the above reasons.
m farrugia
Jan 17th, 19:19
will labour keep on subsidising low cost routes or not? if not using the excuse to save wistin abela jobs at airmalta, malta will end up as in 2003 with empty hotels, restaurants and taxis and airmalta charging exorbitant fares in the absence of competition and flying empty planes
tony zahra of mhra please note and ask a drect question to JM if he will keep this subsidies.
Frank Zammit
Jan 17th, 22:22
Of-course Air Malta's fairs are more expensive than the LOW COST -and why? Because by your own admission, the GOVE is subsidizing the LOW COST fairs but is not subsidizing Air Malta. You must also consider the fact that Air Malta gives a service that the LOW COST don't like;Cargo, Post, Sick people needing hospitalization abroad and are FORCED to fly to destinations that are not profitable.
Charles DeMicoli
Jan 17th, 11:35
So now, who will be the token "cuc malti"?
Mr Joe Micallef
Jan 17th, 12:19
Who knows it may be KEMA! We'll wait and see.
Joseph Micallef
Jan 17th, 11:22
Mr Murray. What was declared was the operating profit which means the balance between the cost of operating the flights and the revenue from the flights. What is being written about is the net profit after deducting the servicing of the loans, overheads and tax.
Peter Murray
Jan 17th, 12:48
Sir
There is NO PROFIT however you care to dress it up or put a spin on it-ONLY ANOTHER MASSIVE ANNUAL LOSS
C Muscat
Jan 17th, 11:22
Jidher car li taht il_PN min hu serju ma ghandux postu. Ghal hbieb tal hbieb biss.
J Martinelli
Jan 17th, 14:13
Ghandek ragun ta.
Mela ghalhekk hemm daqs dawk Laburisti mpjegati fic-Civil ghax 'Malta taghna lkoll' u l-PN jahseb biss fil-hbieb tal-hbieb! Tghid m'hemmx ruxxmata Laburisti cwiec?
B'kummenti bhal tieghek, x'ma jintefahx Joseph?
George Calleja
Jan 17th, 15:49
Taf xi hmerija ktibt? Farrugia kien imqabbad fi zmien in-nazzjonalisti u se jitlaq f'Mejju. Taf ghaliex hu?
Mary Ann Borg
Jan 17th, 11:11
1 Air Malta has been given millions just to keep it going so if low-cost airlines LCA have been aided by government, so has Air Malta KM.
2 LCA are the main reason for the record number of tourists each year.
3 KM cannot replace the routes by LCA as its a small airline
4 KM is doing well now and Malta seems to have struck the right mix with KM and LCAs
5 Lejber: Hands off a success story
Willie Grech
Jan 17th, 12:40
@ Mary Ann Borg
First of all, please note that 'Lejber' is spelt L-A-B-O-U-R. The way you and other PN leaning bloggers spell it, proves that Malta has a real educational deficit!! With regards to the success story, please note that 1) PN nicknamed Airmalta 'ghasfur tac-comb' 2) The airline's success story belongs to the PL from day one till your party decided that it was time for it to go bust
Peter Murray
Jan 17th, 13:04
AIr Malta -a success story?
joe micallef
Jan 17th, 13:04
Mary Ann Borg-Your Point 5 is out of syng with the reality Airmalta is venturing through!
First of all -Under Labour AirMalta was a profitable enterprise.
Under the PN the national airline had to be 'injected' 66million euro aid disguised as payment for a few building blocks that airmalta still uses.
So there is no profit to be deemed a success story - record tourism figures and all!
Byron Abela
Jan 17th, 13:48
We do not need English lessons. The Pn's record on education speaks by itself
Pippo de Marco
Jan 17th, 11:10
If low-cost (not low standard) airlines hadn't been incentivised then we would still be paying through the eyes, ears and nose to travel to and from here. Tourism would not be enjoying the year on year growth it has experienced and Air Malta would still be a bloated, archaic burden on tax payers which would eventually have gone bust leaving us isolated.
George Joseph Cauchi
Jan 17th, 11:09
Mr. Louis Farrugia is right to take the stand that he did. It does not make sense that low cost airlines compete on routes that our national airline already serves and subsidised for it. A drastic change has yet to come, after the elections.
Peter Murray
Jan 17th, 11:00
So what happened to all the "in profit " claims made before Christmas?So a loss of 14 million euros only is seen as an improvement is it?Would he have said Air Mlata made an improvement if they only made 14 million in profit compared to 30 million the previous year?
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 11:24
mmmmmm I think you still believe in MAGIC !!!!!!!!!!!! Do you really understand what ur saying ...... converting a deficit in profit overnight !!!
Airmalta made a small profit margin in its summer schedule when operating to its max. It was obvious that when the winter would kick the marginal profits were going to be translated into loss. I think a 14 MILLION improvement is a good one, still in .
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 11:25
... red but less !!!!!
Peter Murray
Jan 17th, 12:45
Mr Bonell,
I think you with your perverse logic you would make an excellent replacement as Air Malta Chairman and as for overnight defecit into profit conversions -this overnight period has lasted 8 long years .Explain again please how any loss is good one and in the real world how Mr Farrugia would have lasted more than 5 minutes as a Chairman?Profits/losses are only recorded ANNUALLY!
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 15:59
Come on ........ we are talking from the inception of the restructuring process and not from 8 years ago !!!!!!!! That's why I said overnight ... do you really pretend changing 8 years in red in one year !!!!!!!
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 16:00
There are NO GOOD Losses, what I meant is that if year x you get EUR 10 in red and year y you get EU|R2, then it's something positive - in poarole povere it means you are on the right track .....
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 16:05
A Last comment :
Look back at the USA crises, which turned economies into slump etc etc etc ..... Do you know that the banks involved and institutions are not yet in their original positions ...... and are still suffering the consequences.
Just wanted to clarify that losses are easily made while profits are hard to make.
Joseph Grech Attard
Jan 17th, 10:55
Coraggio! Fuggiamo!
Andrew Azzopardi
Jan 17th, 10:50
All political appointments - and Mr Farrugia is a political appointee - lapse with a general election. Any incoming minister can ask him to stay on until May, of course.
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 11:30
And that's why gov corporations are in red !!!!! Both parties use them as their mecca.
Willie Grech
Jan 17th, 10:36
Some PN bloggers here asked not to politicise the issue. Why not? Isn't it because of PN bad political decisions that Airmalta ran into difficulties? Does anyone remember the RJs and AzzurraAir as the main issues why Airmalta is what it is now? Isn't it true that the low cost airlines offer better options to passengers?
Is it true that Airmalta are paying 2 million euros per year for skyparks?
Mr Joe Micallef
Jan 17th, 11:42
Willie all those decision which with hindsight proved or turned wrong have nothing to do with the issues Air Malta and all legacy airlines have to face. Had those decision not been taken, Air Malta would still be facing the same problems
If I have to criticize PN on Air Malta, I feel that the restructuring should have happened at least 5 years before–Obviously they chose other priorities
m. borg (slm)
Jan 17th, 11:46
All will be revealed after 9th March
Frank Zammit
Jan 17th, 15:59
Air Malta's problems go deeper than that- much deeper. The RJs and the Azzurra where just two items in a long list of bad crucial decisions that were taken for other political reasons and not for AirMalta's better future. It is true that these political reasons might have been taken with good intentions but the fact remains that AIR MALTA was forced to contribute much more than it was reasonable.
M Grima
Jan 17th, 10:10
"..... incentivising low cost airlines to compete against routes that Air Malta already covers (without any specific aid) is not the right strategy going forward"
Another resignation under Tonio's fold just because Louis Farrugia does not agree with the minister's strategy. Austin Gatt is still topping the chart of the minister who had the most resignations under his wing.
PN - what a farce!!!
jm busuttil
Jan 17th, 10:29
@ M. Grima
Did you miss this one out: Learn to be constructive in your comments:
" Mr Farrugia said that although the airline still faces a daunting task to become viable, significant progress has been made and it is on the right course. The anticipated operating loss for the year to March 13, 2013 will be around €16 million, an improvement of €14 million over results of the previous year."
Colin Rutledge
Jan 17th, 09:37
The funding of low cost airlines are necessary. The increase of tourists has proven this point. This could not happen with Air malta because they just would not have the capacity and be able to offer the low cost seats. However Air Malta is required to provide link connections to major Airport Hubs, Something low cost do not do. Perhaps a "legal" method of subsidising these should be considered.
Emanuel Debono
Jan 17th, 09:47
However Air Malta is required to provide link connections to major Airport Hubs, Something low cost do not do..........well done...how right you are...WE NEED AIRMALTA !!
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 10:40
Whilst I understand your reasoning, you seem to forget that low cost airlines do not operate to major airports because of the high charges these airports charge due to the demand they have. Do not forget that low cost airlines are given special concessions from the government, while airmalta is not given concessions on routes. . . . . . . . .
Anthony Bonell
Jan 17th, 10:42
Airmalta has been given a bailout but it was given too late. It would have been more wise to give incentives as low cost airlines receive on routes. Also, it is not fair that airmalta has to operate loss making flight because of the country needs and then not being re-compensated for.
Paul Caruana
Jan 17th, 09:01
Realistically, Airmalta will never be in a position to compete with the low cost carriers. It should retrench and focus on its flights to the UK, Germany and Libya. Keeping other routes open is probably not financially worth it, and ultimately will force it to come back to the government, asking for more subsidies.
Anthony Paris
Jan 17th, 08:54
"incentivising low cost airlines to compete against routes that Air Malta already covers (without any specific aid) is not the right strategy going forward." says Air Malta Chairman. Another example of Tonio Fenech's muddled thinking. It is as good as building a heavy fuel oil power station, and then ask to convert it to gas just as it begins to operate.
Anthony A. Mifsud
Jan 17th, 09:14
Very stated in poor layman's term, Well done Mr. Paris , this is the kind of false and muddled investment that this administration are good at.
It make me realized that the PN haven't changed in the past 40 years, as I remember very vividly when the British Forces where based in Malta, every job the MOD did they had to redo, three times or more, why?
To retain the establishment
Negative ux?
Ninu
Mr Joe Micallef
Jan 17th, 09:24
Paris you are not correct.
BWSC: At time of decision, as confirmed by NAO, the chosen plant was the most cost effective. One could have (as I did) argue that gas powered plant are environmentally better but the main decision factor was unit cost. Given the current international development I am still not convinced that gas will be the most unit cost effective two three years down the line.
HENRY FENECH AZZOPARDI
Jan 17th, 09:26
For once try not to politicize the issue of Air Malta. This company which belongs to all Maltese has been riddled by both parties in the past. It is about time to remain autonomous and assisted by who ever is in Government to come out of the problems. It is on the right track, let us keep it that way and if the loss will be halved again next year Air Malta will flourish. Hands off AIR MALTA
Mr Joe Micallef
Jan 17th, 09:29
Reaching the balance between protecting Air Malta or having Low Cost is a very difficult process. As I see it, the fundamental question is what do we think we need most. More tourists (Low Cost) or the pride and need of having a national airline? I trust you agree that the choice is extremely complicated. In my opinion the government is in the process of reaching that balance. Will not be easy
Anthony A. Mifsud
Jan 17th, 13:33
Henry Frendo Azzopardi , do you ever try not to politicize the whole issue?
I have never ever heared you or read you differently ether it's hunting or political
For once admit that we once had a strong bird, and now that they blew it to ablievion , they are felling sorry?
How could a compny run at a loss?
Would you allow yours to get into dire strits?
Ninu
c scudi
Jan 17th, 08:34
It is a difficult decision for any government to subsidise or not low cost carriers.They bring a lot of spending tourists to the Islands.Air Malta has it,s wn loyal followers,including myself but they have had massive subsidies and it will take time for their cost cutting and restucture to pay off.But it will happen..
Please choose the reason of your report below: