Air Malta is not just an airline to the Maltese. It is a lifeline and a source of pride. However, our national pride is now in trouble. Our front-page story today revealing that the EU is expected to turn down the government’s request for a €100m capital injection is bad news.

The airline made an unsustainable loss of €31m in the last financial year. In an interview with The Sunday Times last May, Air Malta’s CEO Joe Cappello put that down mainly to the cost of fuel which spiralled between 2008 and 2009 and he said the next set of results should be better. However, they are actually expected to be even worse.

This means problems lie elsewhere. The arrival of low-cost carriers to Malta, principally Ryanair, which now has 20 per cent of the market share, has been cited as one reason for the decline of the national airline. However, while there is no doubting that Air Malta is not in a position to compete on a euro for euro basis with such an airline, it would be folly to suggest that this is the real problem.

And, in any case, the country’s tourism industry has benefitted enormously from these low-cost airlines – this summer was the best ever, and 2010 could be a record year – so there is certainly no turning back now; even if the routes they operate are subsidised by the government while Air Malta’s, for perfectly good reason given EU rules, are not.

The truth of the matter is that Air Malta remains an inefficient airline. One reason for this is that it has been loaded with employees by successive administrations for political gain, and the other is that it suffers from a culture problem that pervades many state entities.

The issue was recognised in 2004 and to a certain extent addressed. A rescue pact was put together with the unions and the company reduced its 1,900-strong workforce to 1,300 without having to resort to forced redundancies.

However, that is still more than 100 members of staff per aircraft in the fleet (there are 12) and this year the airline registered its first-ever summer losses. It is clear that drastic surgery is required to save the airline from plunging into an abyss inhabited by a number of defunct legacy carriers in recent years.

This should include efforts to make a company where waste has been rampant much leaner. However, this can only be achieved if the subject does not become a political football, as going down that route will only lead to own goals.

•On another note, we express the hope that Bishop Nikol Cauchi, a faithful servant to the Church and Gozo who contributed many articles to these newspapers over the years, manages to win his battle for health.