As an Air Malta captain of many years standing, I have become increasingly irritated, annoyed and frustrated by the current spate of ill-informed criticism we are being made to endure. It seems that some members of our society think that our demand for an extra €50K on top of our current €93K salary is somehow unreasonable. Oh purleez!
Have you ever been in the cockpit (the front end) of an Airbus A320?
No; well, if you ever did you’d see facing you an absolute myriad of dials, knobs and switches… most of which even I don’t know what they do – and I’m forever terrified of touching one by accident.
But I do know which knobs get us up… put us onto autopilot… and get us down again, so I can cheerfully forget the rest.
I don’t think anyone would disagree that ours is a very, very responsible job.
On a daily basis we have the lives of hundreds of punters in our very capable hands. One false move – or flick of the wrong switch – and it could be whoosh, dive, splat! If you catch my drift. All this plus an exhausting 55-hour working month, no wonder we are dissatisfied.
So no, of course I don’t think our wage demands are exorbitant, in fact, I think they are more than reasonable. They say if we go on strike it will affect Malta’s tourism numbers. So we lose a few tourists… so what?
Personally I’d be delighted. Fewer grockles clogging up the tables in my favourite restaurant, spread all over the hotel lidos, overcrowding the space on the Gozo ferry, gawping through the electric gates at my Madliena villa. I’d be more than happy to lose a few tourists if it means we at the sharp end get a better deal.
Have you any idea what it costs to board a kid in an overpriced academy in Lausanne?
And while we’re on the subject of my villa in Madliena, this doesn’t just come bladdoċċ you know, I have a crippling mortgage on it, which, at my current measly wage, I shall still be paying six months down the road.
And it’s all very well moaning about my six-car garage; it currently only has four, yes just four cars in there: my Ferrari, my Porsche Spyder runabout, the wife’s Boomer and the family Range Rover for when I and the family all go out together.
So no waste, all essential spends. Incidentally, the other two car spaces are for the two kids’ cars… when they get old enough to drive.
And don’t think my boat moored in Ta’ Xbiex came cheap or is inexpensive to run and maintain; it cost and costs an arm and a leg!
Not to mention the vast expense of the Filipino crew who I not only had to fly over here from Manila, I also have to pay their wages.
I’ve heard it said that the fact that I have my children, a boy, 14, and a girl, 11, at exclusive boarding schools in Switzerland is proof that I earn more than enough. Rubbish! Have you any idea what it costs to board a kid in an overpriced academy in Lausanne? Ridiculous!
And I can tell you it’s eating into the little money I have in the Bank of Geneva. But hey! Who doesn’t want the best for their kids, eh. Even if it does end up almost crippling me financially.
So yes, of course I need that extra €50k, it should go some little way towards easing my current huge financial burden.
I mean, we’ve only been living in our Madliena place for five years and in that time I’ve upgraded just about everything connected with the palazzo.
OK, so we did have, what some people might call, a decent-sized garden plus pool. But when the opportunity arose to buy the villa next door, drop it and extend our outside space, who wouldn’t have jumped at the opportunity.
So I contend it was then logical to extend the pool to Olympic size and construct three more pergolas nearby. I’ll admit the lawn does require quite a bit of maintenance, but that’s what I pay my four gardeners for, right?
So before you condemn us poor Air Malta pilots for demanding more money think of the expenses we accrue on a daily basis and have a little charity please.