Air Malta

[igb56]

Today`s Times of Malta reports: Air Malta, with assistance of UK-based Meridan Aviation Ltd is to us 2 Airbuses, with 42-62 cabin crew and 20 pilots of Maltese/non Maltese personnel on charter flights out of Birmingham and Manchester to mainly Greece and Spain. 600 flights to carry 200,000 px. High a/c utilisation during 23 weeks May to Oct. Within 3 years expect to increase a/c to 5 and open 2 bases elsewhere in Europe. One base might be Sicily.

[Frankfurt_Cowboy]

Hey that's a great idea, wonder why they didn't think of it before?

[igb56]

Apparently EEC and all that !

[AVIACO]

I know a few girls who have been selected as UK based cabin Crew for KMC, however I believe they are to be based at LGW, not MAN or BHX.

Does however suggest that there is some truth in the rumor.

[debtair]

Air Malta starts Intra European Charter Flights

It's all there on the Air Malta website -

http://www.airmalta.com/page.jsp?id=3528&siteid=1

Looks like they may have taken over a lot of the Azurra Air work (as reported on other threads on Pprune) and decided to take it one-step further and set up a whole operation, plus ties in with their EU membership next week.

Good luck

[320DRIVER]

AH, if the rest of your posting is as factual as the exchange rate you're assuming, then there's not much to it ;-)

[iko wapi choo]

Isnt Merdian something to do with Excel?? Ive taken quite an interest in this company since they visited us in NBO a few weeks back! (i see they are hiring ops staff too...) I know that there are flights from EGCC using Air Malta A320 but callsigns beginning with XLA (ie XLA7006 / 7 MAN-TFS-MAN, also services to SSH) There are also (i think) from Glasgow to ALC/PMI.....

[Devils Advocate]

Albert, don't fret.... if they need that much dosh to keep their heads above water ( which kind of makes you wonder how they got into such a state ?! ) they'll soon p1ss that little(?) lot away - after all, nothing much has changed (yet) in their management team...... give it time.

Aside - that bung effectively cost each and every Maltese man, woman & child £77.35 MTL ( i.e. just over £122 GBP ) and whilst, from an individual view point, it's not quite on the scale of the UK's / Norman Lamonts 'Black Wednesday' ( 16th September 1992 ) it's still a lot of money to pour into a private company; even if it is the (suposed) 'state airline'. :rolleyes:

That said, on the basis of them having been bailed out - courtesy of this substantial bung which, had that happened next week, would be deemed illegal - I too concur that it's particularly 'below the belt'.

Q). Isn't it the case that AirMalta have a monopoly on 'handling' at Luqa airport - surely that's something that, for starters, should be broken-up under the EU's anti-competitive practices ?!

[IceHouse]

Great news for unemployed UK pilots...hopefully outfits like this will get forced out of the market when their next free handout is in need!

[busjetdriver]

AND - did you guys know also, that they have hired a bunch of Aussie and Romanian pilots to fly these UK based 320's, cos they're cheaper. They'll all get validations from the Maltese CAA. So much for JAR licensing regulations protecting your career prospects !!!
Isn't it great that all and sundry can come to the UK and be given work visa's while you guys stand in the dole queue or persuade your friendly bank manager to lend you about 40,000 Euro for a 737NG rating, so you can have the 'priviledge' of working part time on contract to a well known LCC. (who also loves non EU nationals) . Never mind, I'm sure these nice guys will buy you a pint at the airport hotel in MAN this Summer.
BTW, how many of you have been successful in getting an airline job interview down under lately?

[charterguy]

iko wapi choo

I think you will find that Meridian are competitors of Excel. However, the big difference is that Excel are an airline, whereas Meridian are only brokers (middlemen, parasites or whatever you wish to call them). Excel will offer Air Malta a better deal next year, and that'll be it for Meridian, unless they can find another newly admitted EU carrier. Slovakia or Slovenia perhaps ?

Does anybody know which UK tour operators actually entrust their flights to middlemen like Meridian ? Just curious why these people aren't getting themselves a copy fo JP and book direct ??

CG

[B Sousa]

Didnt we just have a long thread on Malta a few months ago. Not sure what charter company but it was a real stink on PPrune??

[Netset]

I have to agree with the comments although some are untrue. One other point is that this has nothing to do with the previous threads that appeared a few months ago.

As you might have heard, we Maltese pilots are having problems with our current management on other matters regarding restructuring. We were offered to go before it all started. The pay wasn't bad but there were many uncertainities with regards to other matters. However, one must point out that even before we were offered the package, Air Malta mangement had already Australian crew in hand. When the offer was made to our union, management told them 'Take it or leave it'. I'm not sure about Romanian crew flying on line.

So if you guys are unhappy about the whole thing, well join the club.

[igb56]

Of interest - or not - on BBC2 Ceefax Airport arrivals page 448 for Manchester Airport tonight was an Air Malta arriving from CORFU. Assume Air Malta sales people did the rounds of tour operators many months ago to clinch this one. Who does KM operate for UK? Interesting that an airline which is, according to a recent Times of Malta, is rapidly progressing up whatnot creek; cost cutting, redundancies, rationalisation...