Air Malta is in the middle of a grave problem that needs an all round effort to resolve. Even if all the stakeholders cooperate and collaborate there is no guarantee the problem’s back will be broken let alone if they fall out with each other and start engaging in recrimination rather in pooling thoughts and contributions on how to move ahead.

For the problem is not about differences between employer and unions, the government and the opposition. It relates to the reality situation in the company: it is making one loss after the other. Can it change back to profitability and, if so, how can that be than in a way acceptable to the EU? It is not about the past, though that cannot be forgotten and must be learned from. It is about the future.

Specifically, from its present position, does Air Malta go into continued operation on a flight path towards profitability or plunge into bankruptcy and winding up? The latter prospect must be avoided at all costs. For the sake of the employees, certainly, all 1,500 of them. And for the sake of the economy, of the tourist sector and other commercial activities.

Were Air Malta to flounder – one may argue – other airlines will fill the gaps created thereby. Not necessarily. They would pick and choose. The first and only consideration would be their bottom line. Realistically as well as understandably, that is what they are all about.

That too should be the starting point for Air Malta, given reality stakes and EU strictures. Yet, there is no doubt that a national carrier, and it alone, acts with an eye to the national interest.

That is the crystal clear background to the multilateral discussions that are about the start. The government will be consulting the opposition, in addition to the unions. It is easy to predict that both the opposition and the unions will point out that Air Malta – which has never received any government injection other than its start-up capital, or any guarantees, which had been profitable – was weakened through the RJ and AzzurAir factors as well as excess labour because both Labour and Nationalist government stuffed it with too many jobs relative to its requirements.

That bit will have to be got off the stakeholders’ chest. That done, they should move on. The money spent or wasted on the RJs and on AzzurAir would, had it remained in the reserves, given the company a longer breathing space. The present problems would still have arisen. As for excess labour, there was a memorandum of understating from 2004 which, along with subsequent measures, addressed that factor, with the workers bearing the brunt of it.

Moving on, it hasn’t been enough. With the company continuing to run a loss position, surely further remedial action was required and perhaps the general election and the Euro-Parliament election came in the way – political factors which should have been avoided.

Meanwhile, the world did not stop. Fuel prices wreaked havoc, despite manful attempts at hedging. Competition ballooned, not least because the government had to lure in low-cost carriers for the sake of the tourist industry and, thereby, the rest of the economy.

That was all yesterday. Apportioning blame may be part of the game. It will not change today’s reality and tomorrow’s threat. These have to be addressed by pooling resources.

By working out a solution which, while, no doubt, it will hurt, and badly so, will move the situation forward. That is not the first priority.

It is the only priority. If our best political and union minds cannot devise an effective package acceptable to the EU once we use our best negotiating skills in that area, Air Malta will crash. We can argue from here to eternity who was to the blame – Air Malta will be no more.

That is what the government, the opposition and unions have to work to avoid. At all costs. The sword of Damocles hangs over Air Malta. If it is not removed, it will fall. And kill.