Air Malta once again extends its sincere apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused to Gerard Cowie due to the late arrival of his luggage following his flight KM118 on October 2 (If They Don’t Care About Customers (October 19). However, Air Malta cannot accept the version of events as presented by Mr Cowie in his letter.

Mr Cowie travelled on Air Malta flight KM118 to London Gatwick on Saturday, October 2, arriving at his destination at around 10 p.m. He sent an e-mail to Air Malta’s baggage call centre on Sunday, October 3, informing the airline that his luggage did not arrive at London Gatwick and moreover requesting information on the compensation that Air Malta was going to offer him.

In this same e-mail Mr Cowie declared that in 20 years of travelling with Air Malta he had never experienced a similar incident.

He received a reply from Air Malta that same Sunday informing him that his luggage was on board flight KM116 arriving in Gatwick at about 11 a.m. that same day. In this e-mail he was also informed that staff from Gatwick Airport will be contacting him to arrange the delivery of his bag. According to our records, the luggage was delivered to Mr Cowie on Sunday, October 3 at 7.50 p.m. – i.e. in less than 24 hours from Mr Cowie’s arrival at London Gatwick.

On Sunday, October 3, Mr Cowie wrote back to Air Malta and insisted on being compensated for damages he alleged he had suffered as a result of this incident. On October 4, Air Malta replied through e-mail and informed him that his request for compensation could not be accepted for the reasons delineated in this same e-mail.

What the airline is stating above is supported with e-mails exchanged between Air Malta and Mr Cowie, to which Mr Cowie is surprisingly claiming in his letter to The Times that all his, and we quote, “attempts to contact Air Malta customer service have been met with silence”.

It is indeed very sad that Mr Cowie chose to defame Air Malta with untrue allegations and this over such a minor incident that was solved within less than 24 hours. Air Malta is reserving the right to take all necessary measures to protect its good reputation.

Air Malta makes every effort to ensure the smooth running of its services with the least possible inconvenience to all its passengers.

However, regrettably, it is inevitable that such situations occur from time to time.