Air Malta losses surge from €4m to €13m

Air Malta’s losses rose from €4 million in March 2016 to approximately €13 million in the last financial year. Although the ailing airline had yet to publish its financial results for the last two years, in recent days staff members were told about the “bleak financial situation” prior to crucial decisions unions needed to make in talks on a new collective agreement, sources said. According to a five-year plan agreed with the European Commission in 2011, Air Malta was to make a full financial turnaround and return to the black by March last year. In the first two years, the airline managed to reduce losses and keep to the plan, but then, in March 2014, it was announced that it had veered significantly from the targets. Earlier this week Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi confirmed that the annual results till March will show a loss. He said the airline aimed to reach break-even in the current year.  The last published audited accounts, for the year ended March 2015, saw the airline posting losses of more than €16 million. At the time, then tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis said its finances were under control and that the situation would be reversed by the end of the five-year...