Wizzair – more than just another airline attracted

Shortly after taking up the flights from Budapest to Malta for the summer season, central European low-cost airline Wizzair has announced that it will continue the route during the winter, which is exactly the part of the year when Malta needs to increase the number of tourist arrivals.

Wizzair will certainly put pressure on the long-established Air Malta flights this summer in a consumer market environment in Hungary, which is not exactly easy. To date, these have only been during the summer, supplemented by the now defunct Hungarian flag-carrier Malev as charters. 

Air Malta is apparently dropping this route for the winter so it is only with Wizzair that the non-stop flights will continue year-round. We cannot say with any certainty which came first: whether Air Malta first decided not to operate during the winter and then Wizzair took the decision to do so – maybe with the help of some ‘sweetener’ – or if it was after Wizzair’s plans became clear that Air Malta decided to pull the plug, as two carriers means definitely too much capacity during the winter months.

In a way, Wizzair has positioned itself as the new Hungarian flag-carrier for European services. It can help put the destination ‘on the map’ of customers in the whole central European market. 

Not only that, but it is crucial for Air Malta to maintain a good relationship with tour operators – especially in the central and eastern European tourist market. Only through the mix can such a carrier maintain these routes: routes such as Malta-Budapest were initially all developed by Air Malta. 

Given its market relevance, Wizzair is a strategic airline acquisition for airport and destination and such an addition, particularly in the Polish source market, further diversifying the field of players, should be welcome. Wizzair operates from a number of central European countries.

 

The three new Ryanair routes

The new Krakow route is, indeed, a genuine addition – tapping as it does one of the Polish centres. Such routes definitely deserve support.

Liverpool is only a stone’s throw (30kms) from Manchester and in view of the identical catchment area this is neither a new route (for many years it was served by all kinds of carriers, partly just to keep others out) nor is it exactly an underserved market. Over the years, we have seen changes from UK leisure to UK low-cost airlines. This is a longer sector with not very high yields. On the other hand, the overall Manchester area clearly remains one of Malta’s top source markets and, indeed, the secondary airports in this area can be a far more convenient option due to its small size, meaning shorter journeys than with the large Manchester airport. Clearly this is not a ‘new area’ route and some capacity adjustments can well be expected, so any form of additional subsidy – call it what you will – would be strange. 

The Bergamo route is under two hours’ flying time and thus within the traditional LCC framework. It will mean quite a bit of pressure on Air Malta from the actual Milan airports of Linate and Malpensa. While Linate is the city airport, Malpensa is basically just as far from the city as Bergamo. Malpensa is more attractive for people from the area west of Milan, while Bergamo sources are more to the east. This is another route that clearly cannot qualify for financial sweeteners – since it is just another competitor entering an already existing market. Ryanair’s own Bologna and Treviso might feel some pressure when it comes to the source market in-between.

From the consumer point of view there is no disadvantage with Bergamo airport.

Air Malta offers no Malpensa flights in winter, Easyjet is apparently giving up the route, and this summer Air Malta is only offering two weekend flights from Linate. Anyone wanting to travel during the week would thus have to connect through Rome by an Alitalia feeder and pay €400 at the very least for a return flight during the off-peak season (Economy Saver). It is as well to bear in mind that for €500 one can travel from Europe to the booming year-round destination of Costa Rica and back with US network giants.

This is insufficient to connect to the industrial north of Italy, which is the economic powerhouse of the area. The Malpensa and Linate route is a case where, considering the state of the Italian consumer market, the Air Malta and Easyjet combination did not work. I am, however, very confident that Ryanair will be successful with Milan-Bergamo.

 

Algiers route being cut back?

Air Malta’s Algiers flight (see comment by yours truly in TMIS 26 May) is being operated once a week during July – contrary to the originally announced twice a week, according to the airline’s internet booking engine. Even at short call, the lowest fare is available for both July and August. This does not augur too well for the ratio of seats actually sold versus those offered in total. On the other hand, I wonder how this could not have been expected – see this paper. In addition, non-EU alternatives for routes were shown, plus there is still a further alternative with the apparently unrestricted charter flying to a core EU market. We all know how much money the earlier Damascus route had cost.

A far more cost-effective way of maintaining regional routes (if one insists on having them in the network for some reason) that is in line with international airline business practice with anything from big network carriers to small airlines, has already been outlined by me since the mid-2000s. However, this method of cost and network optimisation is apparently not on the priority list. 

 

A chance to save the Algiers and Cairo routes

With Egyptair maybe having some problems about using their regional aircraft at the moment, not just on the Malta route, it could be an option to otherwise have the Algiers route operated by their small Embraer 170 jet, which is a bit more appropriate for the route (though possibly still too big), routing Cairo-Malta-Algiers-Malta-Cairo. The Malta-Algiers sector could be marketed by Air Malta in addition to Egyptair sales for the whole length of the sector. This would help Egyptair increase its loads and enable Air Malta to connect to that market – if it is considered important – u under its own code, while at the same time possibly reducing the cost of the flight, although at least it is operated at night, when leasing bills run on regardless of whether the plane is parked or flying. Air Malta has been using this arrangement for the Malta-Cyprus segment with Emirates for a number of years already, so it would not be something totally new. In general, I wonder why Egyptair – a Star Alliance carrier – and Air Malta have not been cooperating with a code-share for a long time already. 

 

Special offer for Germans: Malta to Paris flights – dating back months ago

Air Malta’s website’s development into an informative, colourful portal for the visitor to the Maltese islands as a destination is a very good step. 

However, it could be making even more of it. For example, from the middle of July, if accessing the site from Germany, anyone clicking on the special offers will be shown, in the German language, as special offers for Germany flights from Malta to Paris, or vice-versa, and from Malta to Zurich. Now, first of all, if someone from Germany accesses the website of a carrier of a particular destination, it would appear logical that this person wants to visit that destination – in this case Malta – from the country of access. But who from Germany will buy a flight to Paris from an Air Malta website when to take advantage of this offer they would first have to get to Malta for it? And all this when they can go by train, car, or cheap non-stop Air France flights from any airport at a fraction of the cost and time? Or drive all the way to Paris when Air Malta has good offers from Germany itself? And even more so, when the offer dates back to April and is still being advertised in the peak of summer? This would be as if a village grocer, or Lidl, or whatever, is advertising things it no longer sells, since they were special offers from months ago. And it has to be added here that these are offers of zero relevance to the potential customer seeing the advert. 

Air Malta is also still continuing to advertise flights on its main page such as Germany to Turkey via Malta at fares – and with flight times – that cannot really compete on either score with the loads of non-stop flights, or from Munich to Rome via Malta, also at uncompetitive prices and timings, when Rome is exactly half-way. One would expect special offers for the shoulder months, or for those booking early in winter, or last-minute capacity. Connections must make sense geographically, time-wise and cost-wise. 

There needs to be a “thinking from a customer’s perspective” attitude. Why do all these things go unnoticed? With all the latest technology, international contractors managing sales on behalf of the firm maybe, all the boasting about how good it is that many people lost their jobs with Air Malta, and so on, one would have expected more dedication to selling, which is essential in Air Malta’s struggle for survival and for a future of financial strength for our national airline.