The proposed Air Malta restructuring plan is to be presented to the European Commission in the next few days, the airline's new CEO, Peter Davies, announced this evening.
He was speaking at the opening of the Amitex travel fair.
"My appointment comes at a very difficult time for the airline. The risk of failure and repercussions on an island nation like Malta thriving on tourism are too great to address without a thorough, analytical and detailed analysis," Mr Davies said.
"The restructuring team appointed by the government had to look deeply at Air Malta's business and systematically analyse each and every business process. Unfortunately there is neither a quick fix solution, nor do we have time to spare. In the next few days we will be presenting our turnaround plan to the European Commission and this plan will become the new foundations of Air Malta and its revisited business model for the foreseeable future.
"Over its 37 year history Air Malta has faced many trying moments. It was never an easy ride for the airline, yet by far the last 10 years have been eventful not only for Air Malta but also for the whole aviation industry," Mr Davies observed.
During this last decade, he said, the airline business had experienced circumstances and events which had rocked the industry including September 11th, health scares, fuel price increases, economic downturn and natural calamities like the volcanic ash crisis that last year closed large parts of European airspace. Coupled with these events, fundamental technological changes changed the way airlines do business and communicate with their customers.
"In view of these major challenges and the market evolution, Air Malta has not adapted quickly enough. The 2004 restructuring and the rescue plan signed with the cooperation of the four trade unions representing Air Malta employees was fundamental and a step in the right direction.
"Today, however, we need to go beyond this and together with all stakeholders we need to craft our way to build a sustainable long-term future. The recent spike in the prices of fuel which may become a plateau, the evolving situation in Libya, North Africa and the Middle East will continue to put pressure on our airline. We need to focus our attention to a quick and sustainable action plan to fulfil our EU obligations in line with the restructuring plan and return the airline to profitability."
Mr Davies said that this week he started by reviewing various internal reports and meeting staff members at their workplace. He had seen a genuine desire from all layers of staff to work together to turnaround the airline and together develop the right environment to succeed.
"I will constantly support initiatives and management styles that breed a passenger oriented approach," he said.
"I am aware of the sacrifices that staff members have made in the last years, however there are still major concerns that we need to address before we can say the worst is over.
"It is with great sense of honour and huge responsibility that I take over as Chief Executive of Air Malta. I am conscious and realise the importance of the task bestowed upon me to turnaround Air Malta. It would be premature for me to offer any concrete immediate solutions to the many problems we face, however, I am confident that there is light at the end of the tunnel and although there is not an easy way forward, through the commitment and understanding of all stakeholders, we can manage to turnaround this airline."
Mr Davies said Air Malta is planning to fly 1.3 million passengers this summer - at par with last year.
This summer Air Malta will also increase capacity on Vienna, operate a weekly flight to Hanover as part of the fly/cruise business project, restart direct services to Istanbul and increased charter flights to Tel Aviv, which had seen considerable growth in demand.
Overall this season Air Malta will be operating 180 weekly scheduled flights to over 35 destinations including services to the major airports in London, Paris, Rome and Munich, Mr Davies said.
Amitex is being held until April 17 at the MFCC, Ta' Qali.
This year's edition brings together 21 local and foreign exhibitors, including travel agencies, destination management companies, tour operators, hotels and service suppliers.