Ryanair announces five new Malta routes to Italy and Greece for summer

Ryanair today announced five new Malta routes to Brindisi, Cagliari, Genoa and Trapani in Italy and Chania in Greece, all operating twice weekly as part of Malta’s Summer 2021 schedule.  These new routes will be operated mainly by Malta Air, from its Malta base.

Malta Air CEO D. O'Brien said Ryanair was committed to investing heavily in providing connectivity to and from Malta, and its Summer ’21 schedule will boost air traffic and lead the recovery of Maltese tourism.  

With the new routes, Ryanair will be connecting Malta to 57 routes in 19 countries, through 155 weekly flights.  It will have six aircraft based in Malta.  O’Brien said that Malta Air would be taking delivery of the first of six B737-8200 aircraft in May.

(Source: maltatoday.com.mt, 14-Apr-21)

Malta IAP releases traffic results for March 2021

Passenger traffic through Malta International Airport totalled 32,033 movements last March.  Translating into a drop of 93% to the same month in 2019, this traffic result reflects the hurdles – including low consumer confidence – still being faced by the aviation industry a year into the Covid-19 pandemic.

A rapid vaccination roll-out among the local population together with government’s recently announced plan for the restart of tourism on the 1st of June bode well for the second half of the year.  However, the successful revival of air travel is also highly dependent on the restoration of consumer confidence in the industry in the build-up to summer.

(Source: maltairport.com, 8-Apr-2021)

VistaJet takes delivery of its first Global 7500s, orders ten additional Challenger 350s

VistaJet today announces additions to its state-of-the-art infrastructure with the delivery of the first two of its Global 7500 aircraft, ready for commercial availability, and the order of ten new Challenger 350 planes, from long-standing partner Bombardier.

(Source: VistaJet, 6-Apr-2021)

Ryanair B738 under tow collides with a line of parked fuel bowsers at Malta IAP

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 (9H-QCJ) has collided into a line of parked fuel bowsers parked on apron 1 at Malta IAP.  The B738 was under tow when the incident happened this morning around 1130lt.  It appears that the towbar snapped leaving the aircraft freewheeling across the airfield.  No passengers were on board the aircraft and no injuries have been reported as a result of this incident. 

Malta IAP's Rescue and Fire Fighting team was quick on the scene, taking control of the area in question.  Consequently, the aerodrome was temporarily closed effecting two flights inbound to Malta IAP.  Lufthansa's LH1276 from Frankfurt had to divert to Catania-Fontanarossa, while Tunisair Express' UG1300 from Tunis-Carthage had to return back to Tunis-Carthage.  The aerodrome was re-opened again to flight operations around 1220lt.

(Source: Malta IAP and simpleflying.com, 2-Apr-2021)