Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis told The Malta Independent yesterday that the deal for Alitalia to purchase a stake in Air Malta will be off if it is not advantageous to the national carrier.
“If there isn’t a deal to the advantage of Air Malta, obviously, the deal is off,” he said in reaction to a statement by Alitalia Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo saying that acquiring 49% stake in AirMalta being a “zero risk operation”.
Montezemolo said earlier this week: “It is an investment of not even one euro for Alitalia but which can provide interesting connections to Sicily.”
TMI asked Dr Zammit Lewis how Alitalia can actually help Malta at all if they apparently aren’t actually going to be investing anything in the company. His answer was that a business plan is being made in collaboration with “technical people” in Malta. This will be ready in the coming weeks.
“It is at that point that we will know if there will be advantages for Air Malta,” the Minister said. He then detailed the different advantages which are likely to come out of the business plan in terms of procurement, aircraft leasing and more employment. “Another advantage will be that Air Malta will no longer remain an airline with seven airplanes in winter and nine in summer, but we will see an Air Malta with 12 or 13 planes.”
Dr Zammit Lewis said that “Montezemolo needs to shoulder responsibility for what he said”, assuring the public that the deal will be made to the advantage of Air Malta.
Alitalia Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
Interestingly, Italian news portal TTGItalia, yesterday reported that Montezemolo had again said that the Air Malta investment would be zero risk. It also reported a very similar statement to what he previously told Italian media on the matter.
It was announced at the end of April that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Air Malta and Alitalia to open negotiations leading to the sale of 49% of the national carrier’s stake to Alitalia. After exploring other options, the government decided to stick with Alitalia with the final aim being to make a turnaround in the national airline.