(ANSA) - LA VALLETTA, 15 JAN - Aur Malta, the flag company directly owned by the Maltese government, "risks bankruptcy" if by the summer it does not implement a drastic plan of cuts, starting with the staff that will be more than halved.
The new crisis of the company, which currently loses 170 thousand euros a day, and the plan to save it were announced by the finance minister, Clyde Caruana, specifying that the workforce will drop from the current 890 to 420 units in an attempt to save 15 million euros. "We have to be very serious with this plan, which can easily be Air Malta's last chance," said the minister.
Last year the Maltese government had asked the European Commission for permission to pump 290 million into the company's budget in derogation of the state aid ban, but after contacts with the Commissioner for competition MargretheVestager the executive of Valletta had to change course.
It was Caruana himself who admitted, according to what the Maltese media reported, that for Vestager the Commission "has lost faith in Air Malta because many promises have not been kept".
Much smaller than Alitalia, the Malta flag company shares a long history of commissioners and state bailouts with the Italian flag.
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