The Italian civil aviation authority (Enac) has raised concerns over operations by Fly Hermes airline after hundreds of passengers were recently left stranded at Palermo airport without assistance.

Palermo authorities complained to Enac on the “unacceptable behaviour” of the airline operated by Hermes Aviation. The airline left passengers booked on flights to Torino waiting for two days at Palermo airport in the first week of January.

“It is unacceptable that an airline company does not respect passengers’ fundamental rights, leaving them at the airport without minimal assistance. We are very angry at what happened,” Palermo airport’s management association told Enac in a letter.

Palermo airport staff had to suddenly provide passengers with food and drinks.

The directorate is continuing to monitor the situation

Vito Riggio, Enac’s president, insisted the airline’s operational standards had to be aligned with international standards or it would be banned from Italy.

This incident has put Malta in a bad light as Italian media repeatedly referred to the airline company as Maltese, even though it is an Italian company registered in Malta.

It is owned by members of the Sicilian Di Grandi family and companies controlled by them. Since its rollout last December, the airline has suffered numerous delays in its flights to Sicily and Italy.

Enac has raised concerns with the Maltese Department of Civil Aviation over Hermes’ operational status quo given that very few of its flights have ever left on time.

Transport Malta said the Civil Aviation Directorate had not received any complaints from Enac. The directorate had contacted the manager at Fly Hermes to establish the facts and ensure it abided by its international obligations.

The situation was being monitored and all steps would be taken to ensure operations conformed to the licence, it said.

Last week angry passengers told this newspaper that the flights had been cancelled without prior notice or justification. Staff confirmed that all flights for the following two weeks had been cancelled.

Until recently, the operator offered B737-400-operated flights from Malta to Comiso and Palermo in Sicily with onward connections to Turin in northern Italy. It has since emerged that two B737-300s have been secured to shore up its operations and to launch additional flights to other Italian cities.