An Air Malta transition committee set up last May to oversee the national airline’s merger with Alitalia has been put on the back-burner, industry sources said.

A Tourism Ministry spokeswoman said last night the committee was not functional yet.

Few were aware of the existence of this committee, and the sources indicated that not even the airline management and board members, except chairwoman Maria Micallef, knew exactly what its remit was.

Its chairman, Deo Scerri, an accountant, will resign the post to assume the post of Bank of Valletta chairman in mid-December. Civil aviation industry sources said this could be another indication that the possibilities of Alitalia buying into Air Malta were fading fast.

“Kept under the radar, the transition committee was exchanging information with Alitalia on various contracts involving Air Malta. These included the leasing of aircraft, catering and IT and consisted of very sensitive commercial data,” the sources said.

“It appears that, although, officially, negotiations with Alitalia continue, the government is preparing its exit,” they added.

Negotiations with Alitalia continue, but it appears the government is preparing its exit

Mr Scerri confirmed when contacted that he had resigned from the committee. “Due to my new role I have stepped down from this [Air Malta] committee,” he said, not going into the committee’s remit for “ethical reasons”.

At first, Mr Scerri said he had nothing to do with any negotiations with Alitalia. However, when pressed, he said: “This committee met a few times, but its remit is on hold, as what had to happen did not materialise yet”.

A Tourism Ministry spokeswoman confirmed the existence of the committee but said it had not started operating yet.

“As the agreement with the strategic partner is not signed and will only be signed if it is beneficial for the airline, the tourism industry and the economy at large, the transition team has not yet started functioning”, she said.

She acknowledged that “Mr Scerri had declared that he would not form part of the committee once it started operating” since he had now been appointed to chair the Bank of Valletta. She, however declined from naming the other members of the committee and their remuneration.

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis has repeatedly said he would be informing the unions and the public on all developments about Air Malta, however the existence of the transition committee had never been made public before.

The sources said it was rather confusing that a transition committee had been set up prior to an agreement being reached. “It seems the government has put the cart before the horse in this case. It was so certain that Alitalia will buy Air Malta shares that the government acted too fast and may have weakened its negotiating power,” the sources said.

Although, according to the memorandum of understanding signed by the two parties, Alitalia was to decide about taking a 49.9 per cent stake in Air Malta by the end of August, no announcement has been made yet.

The Times of Malta reported that the government had unofficially pulled the plug on the talks, as Alitalia and Etihad, which calls the shots at the Italian carrier, had turned lukewarm over the deal.

So far, the government has not made any formal declaration about the state of play of the talks.