Ho-hum, I thought, another flight with Air Malta... In Zurich, boarding KM491 on April 6 in the usual scrimmage – rows 16 to 24 were called first and, thereafter, we were left to ourselves – we arrived in our seats in row four to find that the lockers over our seats were entirely jammed.

We asked the stewardess if our (small) pieces of hand luggage could be stowed in the overhead lockers in the Club area, visibly only half full. Wearing that non possumus expression that we now know so well on Air Malta, she obliged us to place our hand baggage over row 16 and, thus, wait for 12 rows to leave the plane before we could recover it.

As we had a full view of the Club area during the flight we noticed that she removed her personal suitcase from a locker in the area, fiddled about with the contents next to a Club passenger and replaced it. She later took her handbag from a Club locker and then replaced it.

On leaving the plane, I thanked her for her help in placing our own hand luggage. If this was Abigail’s Party she was certainly having it her way. She replied tartly that not even they were allowed to store their luggage in the Club area.

This was a blatant untruth.

Why does Air Malta bother with cabin staff? There are no longer any meals. The safety instructions appear on a screen. We could probably do a better job loading and unloading ourselves.

All Malta’s ambitions for ‘high-end tourism’ are valueless in the face of a low-end airline.