(Adds ALPA's reply)

Air Malta said that this afternoon that the Skyparks building is Malta's first Grade ‘A’ office park and the whole building has been built in-line with high standards, including ventilation requirements which have been strictly adhered to.

The airline was replying to claim by ALPA, the pilots’ union, which registered an industrial dispute with the company claiming new training rooms are located at Sky Parks’ Level 0, which was below ground level.

These rooms, the union said, were completely bereft of natural ventilation or windows.

But Air Malta said this afternoon that Skyparks had obtained a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method certification which sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design and is the one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building's environmental performance.

Air Malta said these same rooms were used by the airline’s board of directors for board meetings.

The board had already met twice in these rooms for five to six hours non-stop meetings.

The company reiterated that the ALPA executive committee needed to rise above the canopy and start working together with the airline’s management to address the important airline restructuring challenges that lie ahead.

In a reply, ALPA asked why it had not been given a copy of the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment, avoiding this whole issue.It said that while it acknowledged the good BREEAM rating of 49.2 per cent for Skyparks, it hoped that the company would now substantiate its claim by providing the air quality report covering the training rooms, which were originally planned as parking spaces.