Commenting on a news item regarding Air Malta’s new Flyaway Tours brochure, a passenger, Sherrie Briffa, commented on the Times blog: “I think its about time Air Malta came up with a solution due luck of passengers; only yesterday I flew back home from Schipol (Amsterdam airport) and I counted just 40 passengers on board. The rest were just empty seats, which shows that air fares to and from Malta are still above average even for this time of the year.”

Others would not agree with her analysis: most probably low patronage had little to do with pricing of tickets as much as the international recession or the dates of the flight.

Other participants on the blog disagreed on the pricing issue: some said Air Malta was still more costly than other airlines, while others said low cost airlines are being subsidized by the government’s offer.

But others pointed out at other issues. Matthias A. Merzhäuser, for instance, has long been pointing out on these pages the need for Air Malta to consider using a smaller plane for low-load flights. “For Air Malta with these 140-170-seaters for most routes is an overkill. I have been arguing again and again for a 90+120seater Embraer 175/195 mix, plus maybe a single 50-seater Embraer 145 deployed flexibly.

“You cannot fly on a profit with these meagre loads on an airbus, commonality to or fro... you might fill a big one in July and August but the other 10 months... if there is not the demand for the destination or people simply do not have the money.”

Air Malta has launched Flyaway Tours winter special offers to 13 destinations with prices starting from e199.

The offer is available to Istanbul, Budapest, Vienna, Zurich, Munich, Amsterdam, Sofia, Dusseldorf, Birmingham, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Leipzig.

Package prices vary from e199 for three nights in a centrally located four-star hotel in Istanbul, to e310 for seven nights in a three-star hotel in Budapest.

Other packages starting from e233 include two-night stays in three- and four-star hotels in Vienna, Munich and Amsterdam, and three-night stays in four-star hotels in Sofia and Dusseldorf.

In the meantime, President George Abela has paid an official visit to the airline.