It has been quiet in recent weeks about the possible dissolution of Air Malta and the simultaneous launch of a successor. However, the project is not off the table at all, but part of an emergency plan should the EU Commission not approve state aid for the financially troubled carrier.

The Maltese government has been in intensive negotiations with Brussels for a long time, because even before the corona pandemic, Air Malta was repeatedly given cash injections under its wings. As a result, a temporary subsidy ban was imposed. A senior government official told Malta Today newspaper that there is now no hope that Air Malta's much-needed capital injection will be given the go-ahead.

"The fact is that the government is in the final stages of establishing an alternative national airline to replace Air Malta," the government official told the media. "The plan envisages a leaner and more efficient company run on a strictly commercial basis."

Air Malta is considered cost-intensive due to the fact that the personnel apparatus for the comparatively small fleet is greatly inflated. Although there is a program that is supposed to enable airline employees to switch to the public sector, it works rather poorly. The problem is that the salaries should remain the same, but in many cases are higher than those of civil servants in the authorities.

Again and again it was said that a new carrier could be set up on the basis of the Malta MedAir, which is also state-owned. It is currently envisaged to be a full spin-off which could buy some assets from Air Malta and Malta MedAir. Only material goods, systems and other things will be taken over in order to be able to accelerate the start of the new state carrier.

“The blunt fact is that any new company formed by the government will no longer be an old airline and, unlike Air Malta in the recent past, will have to operate entirely without government subsidies. It will also not be able to maintain Air Malta's original role, which was to offer alternative routes that might not be entirely commercial but were very convenient for Maltese passengers," the government official told Malta Today.