KM Malta Airlines: same consultants, same management, same losses

The new national air carrier – KM Malta Airlines – has been operating for less than a year and is already registering heavy losses.

Despite the government’s pledge to the European Commission that it is a new airline, most of Air Malta’s former consultants are being used.

New information tabled in parliament shows that David Curmi, the former chairman of the now defunct Air Malta, still tasked with leading the new airline despite his glaring failures, has engaged the same company to act as his consultants, which he used to ‘save’ Air Malta and failed.

So far, the new airline, supported by a multi-million-euro cash injection through state coffers, has already paid Knighthood Global Ltd some €1.6 million “to support the new airline implementing its five-year business plan”.

Air Malta paid €2.4 million a year to the same consultancy firm for “turnaround consultancy.” This task, which went on for years, was aimed at presenting to Brussels a plan to keep the former national airline running while pumping hundreds of millions in state aid.

Knighthood Global’s plan failed miserably. Brussels rejected it, and the former airline was forced to close down.

Still, the contract with the same consultants continued at KM Malta Airlines, with just a change in the task’s definition.

James Hogan and James Rigney, Etihad’s former CEO and CFO, own Knighthood Global. They set up the consultancy after being forced to step down, and an Italian court indicted both over their alleged criminal behaviour about the failure of Alitalia, the former Italian flag carrier.

The Abu Dhabi consultants are not the only ones shifted from Air Malta’s books to those of KM Malta Airlines.

Others include Lorna Dalziel, who is paid €132,480 a year for doing the same job she did at Air Malta on aircraft spare parts valuations, and Fraser Sharman-Patch on aircrew manpower.

Even medical consultants have remained the same, such as Paul Sciriha, who got his consultancy retainer renewed with the new airline.

The job of board secretary, which used to be handled by lawyer Andre Borg, has now been farmed out to law firm Camilleri Preziosi, which charges €250 per hour.

At the same time, most of the top managers at Air Malta are now in key positions at the new airline and registering the same failures.

So far, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has resisted calls to publish the contract he gave David Curmi to act as Chairman and CEO of the new airline. He refused to publish the agreement in parliament and denied Freedom of Information requests.

Curmi was being paid €21,500 a month at Air Malta while helping himself to the board’s honoraria, another €10,000 a year.

Sources at KM Malta Airlines said Curmi was receiving higher remuneration from the new airline.

Minister Caruana said he did not want to publish Curmi’s contract because he was afraid other airlines would “poach” him.