I refer to the letter ‘Why does cargo get priority?’ (January 4). Air Malta is predominantly a leisure airline that also offers an important freight service to the local community.

It is not Air Malta’s policy to delay flights and such a delay is not reflective of our good on-time performance statistics.

In 2015, 87 per cent of our flights took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled time of departure.

Over the last three years, the airline has constantly improved its OTP figures (2014: 86.5 per cent, 2013: 84.7 per cent). These figures also include delays which are not in the airline’s control such as weather restrictions.

We have looked into the delay of 32 minutes of the departure of flight KM147 from Manchester to Malta on December 19.

Ten minutes were incurred due to un/loading restrictions of cargo while 22 minutes were due to a one-off ground handling equipment failure at Manchester airport.

The flight arrived in Malta 28 minutes late.

Air Malta reassures its customers that each and every delay is thoroughly investigated and followed up by the airline in line with contracted service level agreements with its ground handling partners. The airline apologises for this delay.