Extending the reach

The agreement announced last week by Ryanair and Air Malta implies more than meets the eye, more than just an agreement between two airlines.

One has to look at the agreement from a long-term point of view, especially on the part of Air Malta.

It is by now no secret that the national airline’s next step is to launch flights that will skip over the Sahara and reach the subSahara zone and even a bit more.

Flights may thus be launched to Ghana, Nigeria and countries around.

What the agreement announced last week means is that if Air Malta extends its routes downwards, these routes become an extension of Ryanair’s reach. The new routes will become an extension of Ryanair.

This is a largely underutilized market and thus a risky step to take. But if there is demand, Air Malta can benefit through becoming a sort of feeder airline to Ryanair.

Even without these sub-Sahara countries, Air Malta’s present routes already reach places that Ryanair does not fly to, at present. For instance Tel Aviv on the one hand and Morocco on the other.

Air Malta is thus proposing itself as an extension of the mighty Ryanair, getting the benefit of putting itself in such an advantageous position.

This is, of course, besides the other advantages of the deal that was announced, the visibility of the Maltese airline and, by extension, Malta, on the huge global reach of the Ryanair website, visited by 50 million unique visitors every month.

When, over the past years, Ryanair increased its presence in Malta from the initial one plane to its present five planes based here serving no less than 53 routes and carrying 2.7 million passengers a year, many were afraid that the low-cost airline giant was growing at the expense

When, over the past years, Ryanair increased its presence in Malta from the initial one plane to its present five planes based here serving no less than 53 routes and carrying 2.7 million passengers a year, many were afraid that the low-cost airline giant was growing at the expense of the Maltese national airline.

of the Maltese national airline.

Instead, they are now cooperating in an innovative way, way beyond the usual run-of-the-mill code sharing agreements we have grown used to.

One can only wait to see this agreement work. Already, it has been reported that a huge number have accessed Air Malta’s website through the Ryanair link.

One can only help wishing the national airline sheds the reports about flights being late that so harm the airline (like they harm so many other airlines in a crisisladen summer).

One also looks forward to the announcement of the airline’s financial figures in a not-sodistant future.