Watch: Fuel hedging agreement blamed for Air Malta €13.1m loss

Updated 2.30pm - Added video Air Malta management has blamed its massive losses on a fuel hedging agreement, but believes the airline will break even in just four months time. Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi confirmed a Times of Malta report that the airline had gone from around a €4 million annual loss to a whopping €13.1 million loss last year. Speaking during a press briefing after a shareholders' meeting, Dr Mizzi said the airline was projecting to break even by March 2018. The main contributor towards this large increase in losses, he said, was a three-year fuel hedging agreement that saw the airline paying much higher prices for its fuel than the average market price. The airline would now be entering into shorter hedging agreements that would only last a few months at a time. Air Malta, he said, had also experienced a drop in revenue which it attributed to its product offering, which had since been reformed from a legacy to a hybrid mix of low cost and business class. During the year under review the airline experienced a decrease of €28.3 million in revenue when total revenue amounted to €192.2million compared to €220.5 million a year before, mainly driven by a capacity...