The “new” airline which will replace Air Malta has officially been announced… and it’s bringing with it a number of changes.

The new airline will operate 17 routes instead of 37 and use eight planes instead of 10, but this time round, it’s all about the company actually registering a profit.

Three of the airline’s Airbus 320NEOs aircrafts will be brand new, bought directly from Airbus and owned by the new company.

Total employees within the company, meanwhile, went from just under 1,400 in 2010 to less than 400 this year.

As part of the revamped structure within the new airline, a series of cost cutting (also down to a smaller workforce) will see the airline’s wage costs go from a spend of €48 million to less than half of that, €22 million.

With Brussels turning down the Maltese government’s request for a €290-million State aid injection into the struggling Air Malta, the islands instead opted for a model which was used by neighbouring Italy, who recently replaced Alitalia with ITA. In fact, the European Commission gave Malta three years to run this… after which time a business partner needs to be allowed in so that it’s not state-funded.

Everything from aircraft maintenance to direct flying costs will be reduced, with a substantial change in the airline’s business model aimed at registering that long-sought-after profit margin.

Designing “the most commercially efficient network”, the new airline has also increased frequencies to existing routes like Rome, Munich, Paris (CDG), Zurich and Vienna… but other routes are now not on the roster.

Palermo, Naples, Nice, Geneva, Lisbon and Tel Aviv are the six routes which have been cancelled.

The remaining routes are now Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Catania, Dusseldorf, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris CDG, Paris Orly, Prague, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.

With a workforce of 375 employees, the airline’s new €350 million investment (and €90 million for staff and pilots) also includes the acquisition of the London Heathrow and Gatwick slots from Med-Air.

By the third year of operations (2026/7), Copenhagen will also be added as a route.

Air Malta’s final flight will be on 30th March 2024, with the new airline’s first flights leaving the following day.

As of November 2023, Air Malta customers can apply for refund of tickets post 30th March 2024, with a recruitment process of the new airline kicking off in December.

On 1st December 2023, the new airline will start receiving bookings.

As for Air Malta’s current pilots, these will have four years to decide if they want to leave and not be a part of the new airline… but if they do, they won’t be able to ever join again.

As part of a clause in their contracts, the pilots will be given these four years to decide if they want a sum payment as part of their departure. If they do choose this, they won’t be able to work as pilots with the new airline, or Med-Air, ever again. A six-year “ban” from working within the public sector will also apply.

Read the full article: https://lovinmalta.com/news/air-maltas-final-flight-will-be-on-30th-march-2024-as-new-downsized-national-airline-announced/

970,636 passengers travelled with Air Malta between the start of April and the end of last August, Executive Chairman David Curmi confirmed on Thursday.

The figure represents a 26 per cent increase from the performance of the same period last year, with the highest number of passengers being carried last month with 213,963.

“As we move into the sixth month of our summer 2023 programme, we continue to see a strong demand for travel with our airline,” Mr Curmi stated.

He added that during the reporting period, Air Malta operated to 23 destinations and performed a total of 3,238 rotations with a monthly average of 637 and a weekly average of 154 rotations. The total rotations came out at 28 per cent higher than in 2022, with the highest number of rotations being performed for routes including London Heathrow, Rome Fiumicino, and Catania.

Italy remains the top destination when it comes to passenger loads with 249,730 passengers, followed by France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The airline’s most frequented airport remains London Heathrow, followed by Munich and Rome Fiumicino.

Mr Curmi noted that it gives him “great pleasure” that despite the addition of five new routes, Air Malta still achieved an average seat load factor of 88 per cent during the five months reported. The airline recorded a high average seat load of 92 per cent during August.

“14 out of 23 routes achieved a seat load factor of over 90 per cent. The highest seat load factors were achieved on the Lisbon, Amsterdam, and London Heathrow routes at 99 per cent, 96 per cent, and 95 per cent, respectively,” he continued.

“I attribute this successful performance to the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our people across the company,” Mr Curmi concluded.

Despite the positive results, Air Malta’s future remains uncertain, with it awaiting a verdict from the European Commission on whether Government’s request to inject state aid into the airline will be approved. Back in April, Mr Curmi had said that the airline is set to wind down operations by the end of the year, with a new flag-carrier set to take its place.

Article credits: https://whoswho.mt/en/air-malta-carried-970-636-passengers-between-april-and-august-2023

Air Malta is further expanding its Winter 2023-24 scheduled flight operation with the addition of:

2 x extra Paris CDG rotations on Days 1 & 5 respectively

See the above table for the updated schedule for both Paris airports.

This increased capacity should help cater for more inbound GROUP and MICE traffic to Malta, as well as increase connectivity to Francw  and beyond for the local Malta Market.

We are available should you require any further information or assistance with flights.

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From the 27th of March, Air Malta will offer two direct flights per week between Nice Côte d’Azur and Malta Luqa airport. Departures from Nice are scheduled for Monday and Friday.

The trips to the Portuguese capital are the fifth new destination which form part of the airline’s summer route expansion, which also include flights to Naples, Nice, Palermo and Tel Aviv.

The flights will happen twice per week, on Mondays and Thursdays and will operate between June and October 26th, 2023.

Emirates has announced that it will resume flights to Malta as the airline expands its European network to a further 34 destinations.

The United Arab Emirates airline will be resuming its three weekly services to Malta via Larnaca starting from 14th July.

Flights will depart Dubai every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The airline had stopped all flights to Malta almost a year ago in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in a number of flight restrictions and suspensions.

All local Emirates staff were made redundant at the time.

Passengers travelling to Malta will either have to present a vaccination certificate or a negative PCR before boarding.

Read the full article here: https://lovinmalta.com/news/emirates-airlines-resumes-three-weekly-flights-to-malta-via-larnaca/ 

Finally some good news regarding airline connections, as we receive the news that Malta is to regain an air link to Dubai from May, when FlyDubai will begin operating four flights a week between the two. This will be the first time that the airline has operated flights to Malta.

FlyDubai will start flying to Malta International Airport from May 12, with two of the weekly flights linking Malta International Airport to Dubai International Airport directly and two others including a stop at Catania International Airport.

Malta lost nearly half its air routes last year as part of a series of COVID-19 related cutback measures  and in doing so, lost all flights to Dubai following Emirates’ decision to pull out of Malta altogether.

Return fares will start from €500 for economy class seats or €2,000 for business class seats. A full schedule of the Dubai-Malta flights is available on the Flydubai website.

Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said the airline’s decision to grow its network of destinations reflected its expectation that passengers would gradually return to the skies as COVID-19 restrictions on air travel eased.

Article credits: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/malta-to-regain-dubai-air-link-with-four-flights-a-week-from-may.847065

1° Luglio, data ufficiale della riapertura alle operazioni dell’aeroporto internazionale di Malta per l’Italia!

Malta quindi si avvia a passo spedito verso la riapertura totale del Paese in totale sicurezza.

Le compagnie aeree che opereranno verso l’arcipelago, confermate ad oggi, sono Air Malta, Alitalia, Ryanair ed Easyjet. Ti invitiamo a verificare l’operativo voli con la compagnia di riferimento. Qui di seguito la lista degli aeroporti:

*DAL 1 LUGLIO:

Catania: AirMalta e Ryanair
Bari: Ryanair
Bologna: Ryanair
Milano Bergamo: Ryanair
Milano Malpensa: AirMalta e Easyjet
Napoli: Ryanair  e Easyjet
Palermo: Air Malta
Pisa: Ryanair
Roma Fiumicino: AirMalta, Alitalia e Ryanair
Treviso (Marco Polo): Ryanair
Torino: Ryanair
Perugia: Ryanair
Pescara: Ryanair

*Tutti i voli sono soggetti a variazione, consultare l’orario dei voli sui siti dei vettori.

Per scaricare la brochure dedicata alla riapertura, clicca qui.<http://malta-vacanze.it/downloads/Malta_Sunny&Safe.pdf>

Il ministro del Turismo e della Tutela dei Consumatori, Julia Farrugia Portelli, ha voluto ribadire come l’apertura dell’aeroporto sarà fondamentale per il rilancio del settore turistico e, quindi, dell’economia dell’intero Paese: “il lavoro svolto negli ultimi mesi dalla pubblica amministrazione e dal settore privato, per sanificare e mettere in sicurezza il nostro Arcipelago, ha fatto di Malta una delle mete più sicure a livello internazionale. Per questo siamo pronti ad accogliere i nostri turisti per poter finalmente uscire da questa fase e rilanciare le sorti.

To view original article, please visit:
https://www.maltameeting.it/aggiornamenti/litalia-torna-protagonista-del-turismo-maltese/