Yvonne Turner, a passenger who raised doubts about the pilots’ intentions. Photos: Jason Borg

Half of Air Malta’s pilots on duty yesterday phoned in sick, causing delays and cancellations that will cost the beleaguered airline “in excess of €500,000” in compensation and penalty fees.

The airline said 25 pilots reported sick, causing three flights to be cancelled and seven others delayed – four of them by as long as four hours – and severely inconveniencing more than 2,000 passengers.

An Air Malta spokesman said the airline’s main concern was that more pilots could phone in sick in the coming days, crippling the airline’s services.

Dozens of irate holidaymakers voiced their frustration at the Malta International Airport departures lounge yesterday afternoon.

“Our flight has gone from cancelled to delayed and back to cancelled and delayed again. I have no idea what is going on and I don’t think Air Malta do either. This is pathetic,” Caroline Wilkinson from Newcastle said as she scuttled along the overcrowded check-in queue.

Marylyn Mann, 55, also from the UK, said: “We love coming to Malta. We will come again but I think the way they’ve handled this situation is diabolical.”

Yvonne Turner, 52, and her husband Bill, 55, also complained about the chaos, saying they had been to-ing and fro-ing at the desk after first being told to check in and then told not to.

But she also raised doubts about the reasons why so many pilots called in sick at the same time.

“I find it highly unlikely that all of these pilots are really sick unless they have all been eating their dinner together,” she said.

The stream of sick leave applications followed an industrial dispute registered last month between Air Malta and the Airline Pilots Association (Alpa), over the cancellation of scheduled leave.

The airline confirmed that four per cent of pilots who called in sick had had their leave cancelled in what was the airline’s busiest season.

However, union president Domenic Azzopardi yesterday vehemently denied any involvement, insisting there had been no foul play on the union’s part.

“This definitely has nothing to do with the union. If anything, this is the result of Air Malta’s mismanagement of human resources,” Mr Azzopardi said.

The airline reacted later in the afternoon by urging Mr Azzopardi to call on members who were fit to fly to report for duty today in the interests of passengers and the airline.

“This is the most effective way for Mr Azzopardi to demonstrate that the union was not behind what has taken place today,” the statement said.

Air Malta did not hide its suspicions, putting the word sick in inverted commas in their statement and commenting that “either Malta has been hit by a sudden epidemic or other forces are at work here”.

But Mr Azzopardi justified the sudden bout of illnesses, saying it may have been caused by fatigue as a result of the lack of staff. “The lack of pilots has been a topic of hot debate with the airline for several months. The number of flights has increased but the number of pilots has gone down. This is bound to have consequences,” he said.

The union had complained in the past that Air Malta pilots may fly up to 900 hours every year, just below the maximum legal flying time.

The Malta Employers Association described the manner in which pilots reported sick as “unacceptable”.

“What is Air Malta facing, an outbreak of a disease or unofficial industrial action ordered by Alpa? Could it be that the real ailment is an allergy to the civilised practice of resolving industrial disputes through proper channels, without jeopardising the running of an enterprise?”

MEA called on Alpa to distance itself from possible sick leave abuse. The pilots’ action, it said, appeared to be abusive and was “utterly disruptive and irresponsible.