The mind boggles when faced with certain irrational and unexplainable situations. The ‘new’ management at Air Malta, late last year, decided to cut costs by stopping the in-flight hot meal service to passengers on all its flights, replacing them with a small baguette and a half litre of water. A calculated decision indeed, but unfortunately calculated rather simplistically on the basis of saving money on expenditure, without considering the implications at the other end, the ultimate bill payer – the passenger.
The first point needing to be made is that one hour flight to Rome, for example, cannot be handled in the same way as the three hour plus flight to London. We have gone from a relatively high level of service which included at least 3 staff/passenger contacts in a flight (meal, drinks, tea/coffee) to just one as service, and another as sales. The baguette is served to passengers as a rudimentary packed lunch, fit only for a primary school outing, and the water is handed out in plastic bottles, out of which we are expected to drink, as no cup or glass is provided.
And what about tea and coffee? The offering of a cuppa’ is not about the tea or coffee itself, but carries with it a sense of hospitality which the ‘Airline of the Maltese Islands’ would do well not to ignore. Selling tea or coffee onboard flights is not exactly hospitable, and I find being asked to pay €2 for a tea on a three hour flight to be tantamount to an insult, quite frankly. While the element of cost-slashing has featured very strongly in these decisions, no attempt at balance between saving money and treating passengers decently has been made. I was also shocked to read that teh cabin-crew, who should know better, have limited their position on this matter to their own myopic interests. They only protested about the meal that they themselves were getting, and were quite happy to accept the baguette in lieu of a ‘healthy’ meal as long as they got a cut on sales revenue.
This calculator decision failed to take into account a number of elements, the lack of which, in its implementation, will have a negative impact on the airline in the long run. The one main element being ignored totally is the passenger – you, me and anybody else who makes the conscious decision to book flights on Air Malta, as opposed to low-cost airlines. The low-cost title applies to the other airlines in terms of service and in terms of price paid. These decisions are pushing Air Malta to deserve the same title solely in terms of service, without unfortunately being reflected in the price paid. The passenger comes first is not just a cliché which has been amply proven to be nowhere in the corporate psyche of the airline. The passenger also comes first in originating the money to pay the airline’s bills for fuel, airports and catering, amongst so many others.
Offering us cheap fare on board makes us seek a cheaper fare elsewhere.
