European Pilot Academy SIRA veers off runway at Malta IAP

A European Pilot Academy Tecnam P2000JF (9HVLT) veered off the runway during the roll-out after landing on RWY 31 at Malta IAP.  The incident happened this morning around 1155lt.  Malta IAP's fire and rescue service where quickly on the scene to provide assistance.  The main runway 13/31 had to be temporarily closed with flight operations shifting on smaller runway 23/05.

(20-Apr-2021)

Flydubai postpones all flights to Malta as airline shifts to reduced schedule

Flydubai has postponed all flights to Malta until October as the airline shifts to a reduced schedule for the coming months. To the surprise of many passengers, flydubai abruptly cancelled all flights to Malta with those who have bookings given a one-year expiry voucher. 

"Flydubai flights have resumed on a reduced schedule.  Destinations and flight frequencies will continue to be added to the schedule over the summer," a representative of the airline told Lovin Malta.  "As of now, flydubai to and from Malta will be available on 1st October 2021," she said.

(Source: lovinmalta.com, 19-Apr-2021)

Air Malta unveils its May schedule

Air Malta will be operating 26 weekly flights to and from 11 destinations in May.  The airline will be flying to and from Amsterdam, Brussels, Catania, Frankfurt, London, Lyon, Milan, Paris (Charles de Gaule and Orly), Rome and Zurich.

Air Malta's CCO R. Kinnear said that while the current flight schedule was still significantly sparser than it was in summer 2019, the airline was constantly monitoring and adapting the network and schedule to ensure essential passenger and cargo connectivity to and from the Maltese Islands and main city airports.  

He welcomed the success of the vaccination roll-outs in many countries, especially in Malta saying that this "augurs well for a restart in tourism".  The airline, he said, encouraged efforts to speed up this process.  Together with initiatives like the digital green certificate it was confident and encouraged that the road to recovery will open up. 

The airline stressed that travel health requirements are the prerogative of the health authorities of the countries from which the airline operates and that it will continue to abide by all as directed.  Safety for its customers and crew continued to be its top priority.

(Source: timesofmalta.com, 16-Apr-2021)

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)