Flag carrier Air Malta is to be wound down and replaced by a new national airline.
Chief executive David Curmi told the Times of Malta that the transition will be "largely seamless" after the European Commission rejected Valletta's request to pump almost €300 million into the business
“We are nearing the end of long, difficult and complex discussions with the European Commission, which did not want a photocopy of Air Malta. We showed the commission that we mean business," Curmi said, adding that a five-year business plan for the replacement airline was being put together.
The airline's 300 staff are to be laid off, Curmi said, and will have to apply to work at the foll0w-up carrier, which is to be modelled, if the commission gets its way, on the replacement of Italy's defunct flag carrier Alitalia with ITA Airways.