Updated at 2pm with Air Malta statement

Air Malta was forced to wet lease aircraft on 14 occasions over the busy Christmas period, as its own fleet could not meet the demand, civil aviation industry sources said.

The airline, the sources added, also decided to give full payment and allowances to those crew members who were scheduled to fly but unable to since no aircraft were available. It could not be excluded that this was done to avoid industrial disputes, the sources pointed out.

Wet-leased airliners come with their own crew. The sources noted that the decision to wet lease aircraft was a direct consequence of a decision made by the government and the company’s board a few months ago to reduce the fleet from 10 to eight planes.

“In December, the airline was constrained to work with just six planes, as two were grounded, one in the UK, due to long maintenance. This has brought about a situation where the airline was unable to operate all scheduled flights with just six aircraft,” the sources said.

Speaking to this newspaper on the condition of anonymity, a number of pilots and pursers said the situation that led the airline having to lease aircraft was “a sign of the mismanagement the company is currently experiencing”.

“We told management reducing planes would have consequences. We have now been proved right, even though they won’t admit it,” a veteran captain said.

“What they [the board] ‘saved’ from getting rid of two planes is now being spent on the leasing of aircraft to operate the flights listed on the schedule. More mismanagement than this is difficult to have,” he added.

A purser who has been working for Air Malta for the past 20 years confirmed he had received full pay and allowances, even though he did not fly because foreign crews were on board.

“Yes, I got full pay. I am not happy with the situation, as it shows what a mess our company is in. However, it’s not the workers’ fault that we can’t work on our own planes. It would not be fair that we suffer because of bad decisions made by the management,” he said.

Questions sent to Air Malta on how many scheduled flights were operated by wet-leased aircraft – and at what cost – remained unanswered at the time of writing.

However, the carrier confirmed it leased aircraft.

“It is normal practice in the airline industry to wet lease additional aircraft when the need arises. The rates at which these aircraft are leased are commercially sensitive and cannot be divulged,” a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, following the collapse of talks with Alitalia, the government, under the stewardship of Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech, is now considering cost-cutting measures in an attempt to keep Air Malta flying.

The plan, the sources said, aimed to save €6 million this year, primarily through staff reductions.

The government’s intention is to try to achieve its objective through discussions about new collective agreements. The planned reductions would be across the board, including pilots, cabin crew and ground handling staff.

The government is insisting that ground handling should be hived off either through the formation of a new company that will offer its services to the national airline at a lower cost or by outsourcing its ground handling needs to private companies.

Trip leases saved the airline millions - Air Malta

However, in a statement this afternoon, the airline denied this and said this happened during the course of the whole year. The wet leases, it said, cost €280,000.

Air Malta said the trip leases saved the airline millions of euros in denied boarding compensation payments which it would have to pay to passengers for delayed or cancelled flights.

Aircraft utilisation, it said, was a key performance indicator in the
aviation industry and Air Malta was seeking to maximise resources

"It does not make sense to leave such expensive assets idle in winter for more
than half of the time as was customary," acting CEO Joe Galea said.

Air Malta said it was raising its peak flight utilisation to 14 hours per day per aircraft, while continuing to fly the same number of passengers, and potentially more.

The airline said it expected to conclude the financial year 2016 with a substantially improved result of around €4.5 million.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com