Air Malta will be adding two more new aircraft to their fleet by the summer of 2019, Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion said on Tuesday. These additions are part of Air Malta’s long term strategy and will offer new opportunities to its clients, Mangion said.
The new aircraft will both be, like the most recent addition to Air Malta’s fleet, Airbus A320neo models coming straight out of the factory. The reason that this model of aircraft was once again chosen was because of its technologically advanced nature and also because of its high environmental standards; it emits 50% less noise than previous models and has 17% better fuel efficiency, Mangion explained.
The arrival of these aircraft raises the number of aircraft in Air Malta’s fleet to 12 and signifies further addition to the history of Air Malta’s fleet, with the national airline having flown Airbus type aircraft since a fleet revamp at the beginning of the 21st century.
Mangion also said that in the long term, Air Malta was evaluating setting up external bases in other Mediterranean islands, as this was an empty niche which they could focus on. Mangion also spoke about the potential expansion of Air Malta’s services in North Africa, with flights to Tunis and Casablanca already in existence, and to other parts of the African continent as well.
Air Malta hope that the arrival of the two aircraft will allow for more destinations and flights to be added to the airline’s repertoire’s and they will surely be hoping that the delays and flight cancellations that characterised parts of previous months would become a thing of the past.
On these delays and cancellations, wherein there were five of the latter, Mangion refused to divulge how much they had cost the company financially, saying that it was commercially sensitive information. Such delays are things that happen within the whole airline industry and not just to Air Malta but this was not an excuse for allowing such scenarios to occur, Mangion explained.
The only way to prevent such a situation however is by having an aircraft on standby on the ground, but this is a practice that not even the biggest airlines do, Mangion said. Indeed, he said, having an aircraft always on the ground was the sign of a dying company.