It made no sense for Air Malta and Gozo Channel to be subject to the same EU state aid rules, Labour MEP Alfred Sant said in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

State aid rules under the EU’s competition policies were being taken to extremes in the case of transport systems available to communities living in peripheral islands, he said.

Air Malta needed to implement reforms. But making these fit the strait jacket of EU competition policy was distorting and sometimes blocking the path to recovery.

Dr Sant said that the volume of Air Malta’s business was in no way significant compared to EU air traffic in the Mediterranean. Gozo, on the other hand, suffered from a double insularity, with huge diseconomies of scale when maintaining its communications infrastructure.

The demise of Cyprus Airways recently was a case in point. What socio-economic benefits resulted from it at European or island level?

Dr Sant said that insisting that such connections should survive on the basis of supply and demand in compliance with state aid rules undermines the welfare of communities. Relevant transport services to such communities, even when subsidised appropriately, had no impact on the competitive environment of the EU as a whole.

Earlier this year on 30 January Dr. Sant asked the EC whether it should consider the adoption of more flexible methods when evaluating state aid and support to air and sea transport links comparable to those of Cyprus Airlines, in the interests of ensuring that ongoing economic activity in peripheral island markets is maintained and enhanced. The EC has still to provide a reply to Dr. Sant’s query.