Skift Q&A: Air Malta CEO Says Small Airlines Need to Fly Together
Photo Credit: Peter Davies, the Air Malta CEO, speaking at SITA's Airline IT Summit outside Brussels on June 20. Davies says the airline business is "fabulous" but "tough" and he thinks small airlines can band together in new types of alliances. SITA
Skift Take
Davies' advocacy of small airlines banding together under a single operational management to trim costs is an interesting one as traditional airline alliances are giving some ground to new kinds of groupings. His idea, though, would face regulatory challenges.
Founded in 1974, state-owned Air Malta flies to about three dozen destinations in Europe, and has been beset by losses amidst charges of perennial mismanagement and nepotism. The airline is in the midst of restructuring, trimming operations and employees.
Leading the repositioning is Air Malta CEO Peter Davies, who's been on the job for more than two years. Skift caught up with Davies at a SITA conference on the outskirts of Brussels recently, right after he addressed the conference on the "Potential for Collaboration."
Skift: In your speech you talked about the nature of partnerships. What was the context for that because you seemed kind of bitter about some of your partnerships with airports perhaps?
Peter Davies: Not bitter. I think a lot of airlines will talk about the ... situation airlines have as a root cause for why perhaps we can't lower our costs as much as possible. And, to a certain extent that's true. However, I think there are other ways in which we can be
