Once we’re on an “I’m going to say it if nobody bothers” roll let’s talk about Air Malta. First of all a hand on heart expression of gratitude and admiration to the crews who manned the Air Malta flights into Tripoli to get passengers out of the revolution torn country. There’s no sarcasm, really, we admire them. They went “beyond their call of duty” as Minister Fenech said and volunteered for an act of personal sacrifice not without an element of danger. For that they deserve recognition and, as I said, gratitude.
Fine. That’s the honours. Now for the stark reality. Back in Malta the pilots and crew were treated to a deserved welcome by the Minister while the Labour side of the political divide croaked about the Great National Airline. Here’s Leo Brincat’s thoughts from facebook (his capitals not mine):
TGHID L-AIR MALTA GHAD TIBQA F’QAGHDA LI TAQDI IL-FUNZJONI SOCJALI LI QDIET F’DAWN L-AHHAR SIEGHAT B’TANT KBURIJA, FI- TRIPLI, FL-INTERESS NAZZJONALI, WARA LI TIGI MBICCRA BHALA LINJA NAZZJONALI TAL-AJRU MILL GVERN FUQ PARIR TAL KONSULENTI LI QED JITHALLSU E1 MILJUN FIX-XAHAR?
L-Ghasafar fic-Comb (birds in lead)
It’s all there isn’t it. The war story, the brave heroes acting beyond the call of duty and the capitalist villain earning €1 million while planning a cull of this brave workforce. Air Malta’s dreams have come true. Finally we have a reason to justify its running at a loss. From ghasafar tac-comb (lead (heavy) birds) they have transformed to the ghasafar fic-comb (birds that fly through lead) and boy are we not proud of them.So now we should ride over popular feeling and sentiment and take a huge dump on economic and accounting figures. Because you never know when the next revolution under a tinpot dictator will happen. You never know when the next revolution in a country full of Maltese expats can come about do you?
Well. To be fair there’s always Belgium. You know. The tinpot Walloons might declare war over the Vlams Frites and before you know it a valiant crew will be flying out the fonctionnaires from Zaventem amid the last minute rush. Or Luxembourg – whaddayouknow… a flight from Findel is always easier than a twenty minute drive to Belgium/France or Germany. Take your pick.
Sorry Leo. The butchery of the national airline is an exercise in downsizing based on economic realities that go far beyond the sudden emergency of a Libyan revolution. Funny how no one is mentioning that one particular possible saviour of AirMalta a few weeks ago could have been Ghaddafi himself. Anything goes eh?
Don’t get me wrong I love Air Malta and the service it provides. I am also resigned to the economic realities surrounding Air Malta. Without a national airline or a proper army plane to speak of Malta would just have to do what the Americans did with the ferries no? It’s called chartering planes. The cost of chartering planes in times of emergency would more than justify eliminating the bleeding accounts of a limping national airline. No?
Again, I have the huge suspicion that those who are most vociferous in promoting the “Brave AirMalta” campaign are those who stand to lose most from having the benefits and perks of our national airline cut off. It’s not the heroic pilots that they are going to miss… it’s the freebies and discounted flights.
4 replies on “The Libyan Opportunity – 4”
Quote The butchery of the national airline is an exercise in downsizing based on economic realities unquote
We may here have fodder for debate. What are these ‘economic realities’ that we are taken as read justifying layoffs? Can our perception of ‘economic realities’ whatever we mean by them, mean that we are hurling a lone paradigm at ‘the problem’ naely that the only way forward is to slash costs (wages) so that existing revenues will exceed fixed costs to produce a profit?
Is not this automatically excluding the possibility of increasing revenues whilst keeping fixed costs constant to arrive at the same profit levels without the need to slash costs, meaning that the economy will benefit from increased spending power?
Now assume that air malta had at some stage decided to shift its strategy from a flexible operation (that seeks to attract to malta the highest number of visitors possible, through its pre low cost charter operation that was a cornerstone to its revenue generation and that gave air malta a head start over low cost) to a carrier that develops and services routes, ditching entrepreneurship that was for decades able to make a profit and in the process rendering its fixed costs unsustainable…now sopra corna bastonate, instead of putting on our thinking caps, we may be taking the erroneous change of policy as given, as we move to the next stage worthy of a kitchen board of directors , namely cut costs (wages) rather than increase revenue…as those lacking vision can only see calls to increase revenues as unrealizable dreams…
the history of world economies amply show that the best economies have always thrived on market forces and private enterprise where a real market existed, and a mix of public initiatives and a strong (not pseudo) regulating bodies for the in betweens. Managing our economy through a plus and minus kitchen culture may be eroding our capacity to thrive.
That should be QUOTE The butchery of the national airline is an exercise in downsizing based on economic realities that go far beyond the sudden emergency of a Libyan revolution. UNQUOTE
Danny you chose to eliminate the mention the issue of the Libyan Revolution. My point began from the fact that people like Leo Brincat seem to be trying to ride on the current hero status of Air Malta pilots to attack the resizing of Air Malta.
We may disagree on the best solution for Air Malta but I hope that you too agree that no amount of heroics in this extraordinary circumstance will justify running a loss making enterprise.
As I said… drawing the Airmalta downsizing into the Libyan Revolution equation is either a cheap political shot or the desperate attempt by some who stand to lose perks and more from the airline’s streamlining.
sorry guys, i could not understand my own comment(one) and so i try again
Quote The butchery of the national airline is an exercise in downsizing based on economic realities unquote
We may here have fodder for debate. What are these ‘economic realities’ that we take as read to justify layoffs? Can our perception of ‘economic realities’, whatever these realities are, be hurling a lone paradigm at ‘the problem’; a paradigm that states that the only way forward is to slash costs (wages) so that existing revenues exceed fixed costs to produce a profit?
Is this lone paradigm not excluding a second paradigm namely increase revenues (rather than slash costs) whilst keeping fixed costs constant to achieving the desired levels of profitability while preserving spending power for the benefit of the economy?)
Now assume that air malta had at some stage in the past decided to shift its strategy from a flexible operation (that seeks to attract to malta the highest number of visitors possible, through its pre low-cost charter operation, that gave air malta a head start over the future low cost operators, when charter revenues ay have been a cornerstone to air malta’s revenue generation in its long history of making a profit) to a carrier that develops and services routes, ditching entrepreneurship that could have thrived post low-cost … now sopra corna e bastonate, instead of putting our thinking caps on, we may be taking the orriginal erroneous change of policy as given, as we move to the next stage worthy of a kitchen board of directors , namely cut costs (wages) rather than increase revenue…as those lacking vision on how to increase revenue can only see un realisable dreams in calls to increase revenues …
the history of world economies shows that the best economies thrive on market forces and private enterprise where a real market exists, and a mix of public initiatives and strong (not pseudo) regulating bodies for the in betweens. Managing our economy through a plus and minus kitchen culture may be eroding our capacity to thrive.
hello jacque, now i realize that you were on about political expediency whilst i was on about the air malta reform dynamic. My apologies. Political expediency is such a part of the human psyche in all the democracies i know that i take it as read…hands up a player in the political field who claims that s/he is not politically expedient…events in north africa and the years of political expediency that preceded these events are a case in point…i do get excited however whenever i come across a whiff of a debate that is technical in nature and away from the need to score political points…perhaps my enthusiasm took the better of me in this case.