Air Malta is entering the final process of negotiations with its unions over redundancies and chief executive Peter Davies expects talks to be finalised within the next few weeks.

The airline has been in talks with its four unions on restructuring and speaking at Airline Business' recent World Air Forum in Amsterdam, Davies said: "We have to make sure that the scheme we come up with is sufficient enough to satisfy their requirements as a good employee, but at the same time recognises that we need to move some people out.

"It's striking that balance and I hope that we are in position to finalise those negotiations in the next three to four weeks."

The redundancies are part of restructuring proposals submitted by Air Malta to the European Commission in Brussels which Davies said are still waiting to be accepted.

He said the airline currently had sufficient funds to keep going and was currently using the $68.7 million bailout loan granted by the Commission in November 2010.

"Going in to the Winter period now we have to realign ourselves from a financial perspective, but financially I feel we're in a position where we can move the airline forward," he said.

Source: FlightGlobal.com