A probe into Air Malta pilots’ union chief Dominic Azzopardi has still not been concluded 14 months after the alleged abuse.he Sunday Times of Malta is informed. Sources close to the company told The Sunday Times that a board of inquiry set up to investigate the incident and take disciplinary action has not yet been able to complete its investigation because of the union’s delaying tactics in submitting its defence.
Mr Azzopardi is alleged to have caused a 30-minute delay of a Milan-Malta flight on July 27, 2012, when he arrived late with his family and gave unauthorised instructions for check-in to be reopened and for the passengers’ air bridge to be reattached so they could make it to the flight. Mr Azzopardi denied these allegations.
Air Malta had followed up complaints by passengers and had confirmed it had documented evidence, including third party electronic data, to establish the facts.
Admitting that the process was taking too long, a spokesman for Air Malta confirmed the investigation of Mr Azzopardi was still ongoing and would not be dropped.
“Air Malta agrees that the process is slow, to say the least, but it is not in a position to comment as to the reasons of the delay,” the spokesman said.
“Air Malta has access to digital data and communications relating to the flight and this has all been made available to the inquiry.”
According to the airline’s spokesman, in order to avoid accusations of personal attacks made by Mr Azzopardi following the incident and to ensure transparency, Air Malta had agreed with ALPA that the facts leading to the delay of the flight would be investigated by two members of the legal profession – one appointed by ALPA and the other by Air Malta.
Relations between Mr Azzopardi and the airline’s CEO Peter Davies were never thought to be good. Mr Azzopardi had publicly accused the company’s CEO as being “the main reason for all Air Malta’s ills”.
Last week, hours after the government announced the nomination of Louis Giordimaina as designate CEO to replace Mr Davies in April, ALPA issued a statement withdrawing a directive it issued last August for pilots not to wear their full uniform. According to ALPA it wanted to send a signal to the new designate CEO of its intentions to “start afresh”.
Contacted by this newspaper, Mr Azzopardi declined to comment on whether ALPA’s original directive was aimed at putting pressure on the company to remove Mr Davies.
Mr Azzopardi said he had “nothing to say” and hung up the phone. Mr Davies said he did not wish to comment on ALPA’s withdrawal of the directive but said “it was fantastic that ALPA’s issues have now been solved”.
Asked if Air Malta has been instructed by the government to withdraw its probe on Mr Azzopardi’ alleged abuse, Mr Davies said this is not the case and the inquiry will have to come to a conclusion.
“Everyone knows the consequences. What I can tell you is that the electronic documented evidence has not changed and I will pass it on to the new CEO if the probe does not come to a final conclusion by the time I leave,” he said.