Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis yesterday said he was “not happy” with Air Malta’s current group rates, which were leading to important conference and incentive business being lost to other destinations.

A process had been launched to see where the main pricing problems lay and revise them as far as possible.

Acknowledging that the national airline did not raise its fares capriciously but according to its cost base, he said some of its other tariffs compared favourably with those charged by other short-haul airlines.

Dr Zammit Lewis was answering a number of questions by Opposition MPs, including Antoine Borg, who said Air Malta needed to invest more in its group bookings structure for more efficient handling.

The minister said Joe Galea, a “very competent” former Malta Tourism Authority official in Frankfurt, had been recruited a few months ago to investigate the problems of costly flights and late replies to enquiries, which sometimes took days in a cutthroat market. But, he said, progress was being registered.

Robert Arrigo (PN) said that although passengers were ready to pay what Air Malta was demanding, they were still being pushed away because the airline had changed its flight timings, leading to many cancellations because weekend visitors were being expected to leave Malta in the early hours of Monday.