Air Malta CFO visits FLS

On September 28th, 2016, the bilingual economic classes had the pleasure to welcome Mr. Gossler, the chief financial officer of Air Malta who gave a very interesting presentation on how finances work in the real world.

Air Malta is a company which currently has severe financial problems, so it was very interesting to see how the topics, we dealt with in class, are applied on a daily basis in order to analyze where the weaknesses and strengths of the company are.

Mr. Gossler told us that despite the company´s great reputation, a very good operation, a long aviation history of connecting Malta to other countries and being very profitable in the first 30 years in its history, the company has now been making loss for 10 years and is currently close to insolvency. In order to overcome this financial valley, Mr. Gossler pointed out that the focus was at the moment not on making profit instantly, but rather to reduce costs and increase the cash flow, since it is the cash flow that keeps the company running on short notice.

He explained the business plan that Air Malta is pursuing at the moment which consists of stabilizing, changing and growing aspects. Crucial for the survival of the company is external financing, in other words: convincing banks to grant further loans. Therefore Mr. Gossler showed how weaknesses can be turned into strengths.

He concluded his presentation by stating that financing is the recording of past, essential for the present and decisive for the future. Furthermore, referring to job applications, Mr. Gossler gave valuable insight into requirement profiles that potential employers expect and, in addition, he gave useful advice for our professional future.

In the name of all bilingual economic classes and Mrs. Kaiser-Herz we would like to thank Mr. Gossler for holding this great and eye-opening presentation!

 

Jorge Aleixo
Date: 11/2016