Air Malta reduces losses in first quarter (Apr-Jun) 2012

Air Malta said today that it made an operating loss of €6.1 million in the first quarter of its financial year (April-June) -€1.2 million lower than projected and €3.9 million lower than in the same period last year. The airline registered an increased turnover on budget of €2.1m. The airline said that during the quarter it carried 472,000 passengers and increased its passenger load factor by 2.6% to 75%.

Peter Davies, CEO said: "Air Malta is particularly pleased with these results as they continue to show that we are on track with the Restructuring Plan. We are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to maintain this momentum and achieve our planned results at the end of this financial year. This we can achieve, despite some setbacks which we need to manage that include the OLT Express aircraft lease termination. (Source: timesofmalta.com)

Maltese-registered plane in drug investigation

A Maltese-registered Bombardier private plane has been impounded by the Spanish police in the Canary Islands after it was allegedly found to be carrying a ton of cocaine. According to reports in the Spanish media, the drug was concealed in boxes carrying Red Cross markings. The plane had previously flown from Venezuela to Miami and then the Canary Islands. The Colombian pilot and two Germans are under arrest. (Source: timesofmalta.com)

The Bombardier private plane is BD-700 Global Express, with registration 9H-FED, registered to Hyperion Aviation.

Royal Jordanian A320 diverts to Malta IAP

A Royal Jordanian Airbus A320-200 (JY-AYU), operating flight RJA6053, was forced to divert to Malta IAP this morning, reason unkown. The aircraft landed safely on RWY 31 around 0430LT. The aircraft departed again from Malta IAP around 0755LT to Tripoli International, Libya.

Corsair B744 diverts to Malta IAP

A Corsair Boeing B747-400 (F-HSUN), operating flight CRL903 from St. Denis (Reunion) to Paris-Orly (France) was forced to divert to Malta IAP this morning, reason unkown. The aircraft landed safely on RWY 31 around 0510LT. The aircraft departed again from Malta IAP around 0635LT to Paris-Orly.

M.I.A. plc releases traffic results for July 2012

Following the 1.6% growth reported for the first half of 2012, passenger movements at Malta IAP in July increased by 7.1% reaching an all-time record, for any month ever, of 445,232 passengers. The previous record for any one month was achieved in August 2010 with 427,924 passengers.

In July, aircraft movements and seat capacity increased by 4.8% and 5.7% respectively over the corresponding period last year, whilst the average seat load factor (SLF) increased by 1.1% to reach 85.1%. This increase in SLF is the 16th monthly consecutive growth. The maximum take-off weight also increased by 5.6% on that registered in July last year, whilst cargo and mail were 8% higher than that recorded during the same month in 2011.

All the core markets, with the exception of Germany, registered increases during the month of July with Italy, France and Spain and showing an increase of 10.2%, 9.7% and 3.5% respectively. The largest market, the United Kingdom, resulted in an increase of 2.4%. The German market on the other hand registered a slight decrease of 1%.

January – July 2012: The results for the first seven months of the year, in terms of passenger movements therefore show an increase of 2.8% when compared to the same period last year, totalling 2.02 million passenger movements. This overall increase in the first seven months was mostly due to the record number of passengers in the month of July. (Source: maltairport.com)

Malta IAP to waive landing fees once again this winter

Following last year’s initiative of giving a 100% refund to all scheduled airlines on all their landing fees last winter, Malta International Airport plc will once again waive landing fees for the coming winter season with the aim to further stimulate traffic during the shoulder/winter months. 

This initiative forms part of Malta Airport’s Incentive Programme for airlines which has just been updated. The first Airline Incentive Scheme – launched back in 2007 – was aimed to attract airlines interested to start off their operations to Malta or looking at increasing their presence on the Maltese Islands. The Scheme targeted markets which back then were considered strategic, like the Iberian peninsula, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. (Source: maltairport.com)