Air Malta said this afternoon that all its flights today were operated on schedule and it hoped that service could not continue as normal.

This morning, the airline said it was doing everything possible to operate a normal schedule after 20 pilots reported sick yesterday, forcing the cancellation of three flights and delays for several others.

It said this afternoon that all pilots rostered today carried out their duties with their normal professionalism and commitment to providing safe and reliable service to customers. A total of 17 pilots reported sick yesterday.

The airline said that more than 2,000 passengers were inconvenienced unnecessarily and that more than €500,000 were incurred because of the incident at a time when it was striving to break even.

Air Malta said that only the ALPA executive committee and pilots involved knew what control each had over the unfortunate spike in crew sickness.

"Had ALPA chosen to encourage their healthy members to help crew flights, then less passengers would have been disrupted.

"Air Malta remains committed to develop a positive working environment with our pilots and ALPA at all times," it said.

Earlier today, Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella told timesofmalta.com that something like this had never happened before at Air Malta.

"Even if this was not a coincidence, it has certainly not helped the tourism industry."