Top Story • March 14 2004

Louis Grech and Josef Bonnici contradict Gatt

Julian Manduca and Matthew Vella reporting

Former Finance minister Josef Bonnici and former Air Malta chairman, and European Parliament hopeful, Louis Grech have rebutted a statement made by Minister Austin Gatt last week, and told MaltaToday that under their tenure much was done to redress the ills of the national airline.
Minister for Information Technology and Investment Austin Gatt has always had the reputation of being decisive, both positively as one who gets things done, or negatively as one who shoots from the hip and upsets the apple cart.
Last week Gatt announced that Lm30 million would be invested in the national airline, taking on a loss of Lm14 million for AzzurrAir, which is to be closed down. Gatt announced that although there were no plans to make employees redundant, that option could not be ruled out. He also threw a shadow of doubt on the management of the airline over the years and drew attention to the losses incurred.
Dr Gatt said the problem was that following the September 11, 2001 events, no steps had been taken so that Air Malta would face the new realities, but Louis Grech, who was chairman at the time, told MaltaToday that what the minister said “was not true at all.”
“Soon after September 11,” Grech said, “a report was drawn up for the minister and included a variety of suggestions on cost cutting and route rationalisation. Some of the suggestions were implemented and others not, but it is absolutely untrue to say that no steps had been taken.”
Grech told MaltaToday “Following the report decisions had to be taken and options weighed up, in many instances there were contradictory goals that had to be achieved. Not everything we wanted to do could be implemented. Removing some of the routes would have made sense for Air Malta, but would have damaged our tourism industry and that had to be taken into consideration.
“We had to look at the full picture and there were social considerations, including safeguarding jobs,” Grech explained. Asked whether he agreed with the decision to close down AzzurAir, Grech said yes, and added: “I had suggested it be closed down some years before.”
Former Economic Services Minister Josef Bonnici, whose portfolio also included Air Malta, also told MaltaToday that although rationalisation was carried out at Air Malta, with tourism being a priority, the choices of reducing more routes were limited. “You have to look at the wider picture,” Bonnici said. “At that time, neighbouring countries experienced massive drops in tourism of up to 40 per cent, whilst Malta took a less severe blow, because we sustained certain important routes, despite their loss-making trend, such as the German lines.”