Air Malta starts ambitious summer 2018 schedule, showing biggest growth ever

This week marks the start of five out of 15 new and exciting destinations in Air Malta’s summer schedule. The new schedule, which started on Sunday, sees the Maltese national airline operating a total of 34 scheduled routes with over 180 return flights per week and three new intra-European services.

Air Malta will initially operate with a fleet of nine aircraft, however, due to a significant increase in scheduled services adding London Southend, Cagliari and Catania and more frequencies to existing destinations, the airline has secured the lease of a brand new Airbus A320neo which will join the fleet in the coming months.

After many years, this summer’s schedule will see the return of flights to three new countries – Morocco, Spain and Portugal through the launch of the Casablanca, Malaga and Lisbon routes, respectively.

And there is more good news. This summer the airline is offering 13 new destinations including Cagliari, Comiso, Kiev, TarbesLourdes, St Petersburg, Venice, Manchester, Frankfurt and London Southend.

Summer 2018 will also see Air Malta’s operate three Intra European services between Catania – Vienna, Catania – London Southend and Cagliari – London Southend. The airline will also increase frequencies on Catania, Palermo and Rome.

Commenting on this summer’s schedule, Paul Sies, the airline’s chief Commercial officer stated: “This schedule signifies a strong commitment by Air Malta towards the local tourism industry. The introduction of our new routes will offer better connectivity between the Maltese Islands and the rest of the world and attract new inbound tourism. As an airline we are expanding our operations not just by concentrating on point-topoint connections but also by tapping into new markets through a series of intra-European services.”

Air Malta’s chairman Dr Mangion added: “We have an ambitious schedule this year that will see us operating 18,230 flights; an increase of 4,155 (+30%) more than 2017. We are aiming to carry over 2.3 million passengers, an impressive increase of 630,000 (+43%) more passengers than last year and a historical record for Air Malta.

Dr Konrad Mizzi, Minister for Tourism added: “Over the last few months Air Malta has increased its operating capacity both in terms of seats offered on the market and destinations. The airline has improved its aircraft utilisation significantly and will be adding additional aircraft. This is good news for both Maltese travellers and tourists.”

This summer Air Malta will be operating direct flights to Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Cagliari, Catania, Casablanca, Comiso, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Lisbon, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, London Southend, Lourdes / Tarbes, Lyon, Kiev, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Moscow, Palermo, Charles De Gaulle, Paris Orly, Prague, Rome, St Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Tunis, Venice, Vienna and Zurich.

Apart from the scheduled services, in cooperation with local travel agents, Air Malta is operating an interesting series of charter operations this summer to Bratislava, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Otopeni and Warsaw.

The Maltese national airline will continue code-share agreements with airBaltic, Air France, Alitalia, Aeroflot, Austrian Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, KLM, Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Czech Airlines, Meridiana, Swiss Airlines and Turkish Airlines. These agreements expand Air Malta’s network to other markets worldwide. For more information visit www.airmalta.com, call Air Malta’s sales office on +356 2166 2211 or log onto www.facebook.com/AirMalta