Defunct Air Malta continues to pay €5,000 a month to company secretary

Air Malta PLC, the state-owned carrier formally wound down last year, is continuing to pay more than €5,000 a month to its company secretary despite having ceased all commercial operations almost 20 months ago, according to information seen by The Shift.

Andre Borg, a lawyer with longstanding ties to the governing Labour Party, remains company secretary to the dormant airline. Senior government officials have questioned the continued payments, along with several hundred thousand euro in consultancy fees disbursed since the airline stopped flying.

Since April 2024, when the financially stricken airline operated its final services, Air Malta has spent €716,000 on consultancy work, all awarded by direct order.

Borg & Associates, a small legal practice controlled by Borg, received €100,000.

Audit firm RSM was paid €400,000, while leading law firm Camilleri Preziosi received €221,000.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana declined to answer parliamentary questions from Opposition MP David Agius on why these payments continue despite the airline’s cessation of activity at the end of March 2024.

Although Air Malta no longer trades, its board still formally exists, albeit meeting infrequently.

Most directors have resigned, but the Finance Ministry has retained chairman Philip von Brockdorff, an academic, and Gozitan financial adviser Michael Grech.

Andre Borg, who served full-time as company secretary until March 2024, has also been kept in post even as the company is nominally being wound up.

Borg, son of former Labour MP and Bank of Valletta chairman Reno Borg, holds other government positions, including serving as Malta’s non-resident ambassador to Lebanon.

He has also attracted scrutiny for a separate arrangement revealed by The Shift, where his company Tempodesk Ltd receives €6,000 monthly from the government sports regulator AIMS for premises in Gudja, also awarded by direct order.

Recently, it has also been reported that Air Malta continues to employ 19 staff members at an estimated cost of €90,000 per month. Sources close to the company say it remains unclear why these employees have been retained or what duties they currently perform.

The government shut down the airline in 2024 after the European Commission refused approval for a fresh state-funded capital injection. It has since launched KM Malta Airlines, a near-identical successor carrier with a smaller workforce. The new airline has yet to publish audited financial statements, leaving its adherence to its business plan uncertain.