Low cost airline Ryanair is offering Malta to house a base for its planes here. With just two planes housed here, this could increase the present 11 routes served by the airline to 23, bring in a total of 1.1 million passengers a year, equivalent to 1,100 new jobs and €273 million spent.

The airline started flying to Malta in 2006 and so far is bringing 545,000 passengers every year, spending e136 million in the Maltese economy.

Although a press conference addressed yesterday by Ken O’Toole, head of Route Development at the airline, did not mention the new possible routes, a slide presentation they showed pointed out what the Ryanair officials called ‘possible’ destinations: Bournemouth, Paris, Birmingham, Stansted London, Brussels, Krakow, Turin, Bologna, Naples, Milan, Seville and Valencia. Some of these routes are at present served by Air Malta.

Mr O’Toole, who had just come from a meeting with Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco and MTA, said the indications given by the Maltese side were very positive. Although no deadlines were given, the airline needs a definitive answer quite quickly as it wants to start planning for next winter. The new routes could start operations as early as next October.

Given the current decline in tourist numbers, it is clear Ryanair’s offer must be very attractive to the government. However, it is the airline’s demands that may well prove problematic to the government.

Ryanair believes that MIA costs are too high and it wants a substantial discount, accessible to all airlines, according to the volume of passengers carried. On the other hand, it also feels that where no growth is registered, there should be no support forthcoming.

Funds to seed the base and the new routes, Mr O’Toole insisted, could come from the existing market spend, since, according to him, present advertising is clearly not working.

MIA’s charges are equivalent to three times what it costs Ryanair to fly to Malta, Mr O’Toole contended – e25 per passenger against e7.

Furthermore, he added, Ryanair is seeking to open routes to the North African coastline, with Tunisia being probably the first country to reach agreement in the coming months. A Ryanair base in Malta could easily be structured to enable flights to these countries.

Other possible targets of Ryanair expansion include the Balkans, Turkey and East Europe. One other target is Israel where Malta as a base would be perfectly based, he added.

Ryanair had the greatest growth last year in all Europe, adding nine million passengers to a total of 67 million passengers, served by 800 routes and 32 bases. The coming annual results, due on 2 June, will show this is the 25th year of continuous growth.