An irate passenger is taking legal action against Air Malta after it cancelled his flight and this cost him a business deal he claims was worth hundreds of thousands of euros.

Chris Grech told Times of Malta his 1pm flight to Tripoli was meant to take him straight to a business meeting where he would be signing a contract worth €250,000.

To his dismay, his flight was amalgamated with a 6pm take-off after the airline claimed it was experiencing technical difficulties with one of its planes.

“I told them I had an important meeting but they kept saying there was nothing they could do,” Mr Grech said as he carted his luggage around in disbelief.

Describing the afternoon as “a nightmare”, Mr Grech said he was a regular passenger with the national carrier as his business interests in Libya forced him to spend much of his time overseas.

“I am a frequent traveller with Air Malta and I can tell you this isn’t the first time that this has happened to me,” he said.

Mr Grech claimed the most recent of the airline’s cancellations had forced his business partner to miss important meetings when his flight to Tripoli was postponed and later cancelled.

After exhaustive efforts at the check-in desk, Mr Grech turned to the company’s top brass. This also proved fruitless.

“I called the chief operations officer and that was even worse.

I can tell you this isn’t the first time that this has happened

“I was made to wait for 20 minutes on my mobile phone until I got any reply,” he said, visibly irate at the company’s performance.

Mr Grech said the COO had apologised but then told him he was just going to have to wait. “I will have to take legal action against the airline,” he said.

Mr Grech was not the only passenger affected by a flight cancellation. Jeremy Baum, a French business analyst, said an axed Air Malta flight from Paris to Tripoli had forced him to come to Malta.

“I was meant to fly directly to Tripoli but in Paris they told me sorry we are combining your flight with the next one to Malta. This is ridiculous.” The detour has also impinged on his business plans.

He said he was meant to be meeting an associate in Tripoli but was now going to have to fly to Istanbul to meet him there.

The worst thing is that there hasn’t even been any word of compensation. In Europe we have laws for this kind of thing

“The worst thing is that there hasn’t even been any word of compensation. In Europe we have laws for this kind of thing,” he said adding that the complimentary lunch he had been offered had only added insult to injury.

An Air Malta spokesman denied what he said were passengers’ allegations the flights had been combined due to a shortage of passengers and insisted there were unforeseen technical problems.

The combination was meant to minimise disruptions and avoid outright cancellation. “The airline gives the utmost priority to the safety and well-being of clients and staff,” he said.