‘Lack of confidence’ in announced Air Malta closure date – Insider

The continued availability of flights in Air Malta’s booking system beyond its announced closure date showed “lack of confidence in the government’s schedule”, an insider told Bonġu

A source close to the airline claims it was no coincidence that Air Malta has not stopped selling tickets for flights beyond 30 March 2024, as The Shift reported on Thursday.

It rather was evidence that Air Malta and the government are not yet fully confident whether their announced schedule would work out, the insider said.

On Friday afternoon, Air Malta was still taking bookings for flights up until 20 August 2024 – flights that will never take off according to the government’s plan.

On Monday, Prime Minister Robert Abela and Finance Minister Clyde Caruana announced the closure of the mismanaged national carrier.

‘They have chosen to mislead customers’

“If Air Malta was absolutely sure about closing by the end of March, they could have stopped selling flights beyond that point within a few hours”, the source told Bonġu.

“Instead, they’ve chosen to mislead those customers who have no clue Air Malta is set to close down and be replaced by a new national airline.”

Although Air Malta placed a ‘New Airline Information’ PDF on the front page of its website, only some of the users effectively get to see this announcement.

Those who enter the airline’s booking platform directly, from a search platform for example, are being given the impression it’s business as usual up until 20 August 2024.

Tactic to stay liquid would be ‘outright fraudulent’

“Keeping sales open for those flights beyond 30 March 2024 could also serve as a tactic to stay financially afloat”, the insider continued.

However, knowingly selling cancelled flights and only refunding misled customers months later would amount to an outright fraudulent practice, they added.

“A PDF information placed outside the booking process doesn’t legally qualify as a warning that flights shown as available will in fact never take off”, the insider explained.

Air Malta stays silent on the issue

Over the last 24 hours, Bonġu tried several times to reach out to Air Malta for comment, but hasn’t received any reply by the time of publishing.