KM Malta in financial mess as accounts kept hidden

KM Malta Airlines is facing mounting financial difficulties, with losses already running into double-digit millions and significantly exceeding projections, according to sources familiar with the national carrier’s financial position.

The Shift is informed that the airline’s deteriorating finances are behind the continued failure to publish its first audited accounts, despite the expiry of an extension granted for their filing.

Sources at KM Malta told The Shift that the airline’s losses have already significantly surpassed projections and are known to have reached double-digit millions.

The airline has so far kept its financial performance under wraps, making it impossible for taxpayers to assess the performance of the national carrier established by the government to replace the loss-making Air Malta.

The Shift is informed that Finance Minister Clyde Caruana and KM Malta executive chairman David Curmi are seeking to delay publication of the results amid the airline’s worsening financial performance, in the hope that stronger results from the busy summer months could improve its overall position.

However, the accounts in question cover the financial year ending March 2025, meaning subsequent summer performance would not ordinarily alter the results for that accounting period. Still, the government can present a better-looking picture for the unaudited partial picture.

KM Malta was originally expected to file its first accounts in October 2025. The airline was subsequently given an extension until the first quarter of 2026.

Clyde Caruana had told parliament that the extension was necessary because the first reporting period covered more than 12 months, following the company’s incorporation in November 2023. He said the additional time would allow the airline to prepare a more comprehensive set of results.

Yet almost five months after the end of the first quarter, the accounts remain unpublished in breach of rules.

The Shift has repeatedly asked both Caruana and Curmi to explain the delay. Neither has replied.

Questions have also been raised over another central element of the government’s announced plans for the new airline – the promised sale of a stake to a strategic private investor.

In 2024, Caruana announced that the government intended to sell approximately one-third of KM Malta Airlines to the private sector, insisting that discussions with potential strategic partners were expected.

Two years later, The Shift is informed that the process is at a standstill, with no investor so far showing sufficient interest in acquiring a stake in the Maltese national carrier.

Caruana was again asked by The Shift this week about the lack of progress on the privatisation and the continued absence of the airline’s accounts. He did not reply.

David Curmi was retained by Caruana to lead the new national airline despite having served as Air Malta’s executive chairman during the final years leading to its closure.

Curmi oversaw the winding down of Air Malta and the transition to its successor before being placed at the helm of KM Malta Airlines on a remuneration package of €21,500 a month – equivalent to some €258,000 a year.

His continued stewardship means the same executive who presided over Air Malta’s final chapter was entrusted by Caruana with making its taxpayer-funded replacement commercially viable.

KM Malta began operations in March 2024 after the government closed Air Malta following decades of losses and unsuccessful restructuring attempts.

The replacement exercise has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros, while the government has consistently argued that the new, smaller airline would operate on a commercially sustainable footing.