Alitalia and Air Malta deal talks come to an end

Air Malta and Alitalia have jointly decided to terminate the talks which would have led to Alitalia becoming a 49% shareholder in Malta’s national carrier.

Doubts on the deal always focused on whether the agreement would ultimately benefit Air Malta’s employees and the country.

The two airlines agreed that the current changing landscape in the airline industry was not ideal for a such a transaction and that both airlines would concentrate on the current challenges without entering into a partnership.

“Air Malta and Alitalia will continue to collaborate closely commercially through a recently launched extensive code-sharing program”, the airlines said in a joint statement.