Strike will kill us, warns Air Malta

TROUBLED Air Malta warned that it might collapse completely if a proposed pilots’ strike goes ahead. A similar strike of flight engineers is also being considered.

The airline is undergoing significant restructuring to reduce costs that will see 511 staff, including 57 pilots, lose their jobs. Air Malta chairman Louis Farrugia said the company lost €36 million (US$50 million) in the financial year ending March and will need to reduce annual costs by at least €30 million ($41.7 million) and also increase revenues by the same amount to guarantee survival.

Chief executive officer Peter Davies announced new heads of cargo, engineering, finance, IT, revenue management and a new chief commercial officer, Philip Saunders, who will lead the “radical change”, which is planned to be complete within six months.

So far, 13 of Air Malta’s 149 pilots have been told they will lose their jobs at the end of September.

In addition to cargo capacity on its passenger flights, Air Malta operates two freighter services to and from Frankfurt (Germany) and Tripoli (Libya) using a Boeing 757-200F.