Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis has described the closure of Cyprus Airways as “worrying” but does not think Air Malta will follow suit, despite admitting that the national airline’s financial situation is a “difficult” one.

Cyprus closed down its flag carrier Cyprus Airways last week after the EU ordered the struggling airline to pay back over €65 million in illegal state aid. The European Commission said the Cypriot government had breached the rules on support for struggling companies.

“One instinctively worries since such a thing happened to our neighbour but I don’t believe that the situation [of Air Malta and Cyprus Airlines] is the same,” Dr Zammit Lewis told Times of Malta.

“The ruling given by the Commission says that Malta is a country which has always kept to the guidelines of the restructuring process.

“But I won’t hesitate to admit that Air Malta’s situation is a difficult one. It’s a challenging situation which we are working on by strengthening Air Malta’s management as much as possible so that it will, in turn, drive the reform forward.”

Malta’s national airline halved its losses to €16 million for the financial year ending March 2014 and is forecasting further losses to the tune of €16 million for March 2015. Under its restructuring plan, it needs to break even by next year. ”