The new project has been made possible as a result of Malta’s joining the European Union, said Air Malta’s chief operations officer Joe Cappello at the airline’s head office at Luqa yesterday.
Mr Cappello said: “First of all, people must realise that the old concept of national airlines is not valid anymore. All EU countries’ airlines are going to become simple transport carriers,” said Mr Cappello.
He said that the old concept was very limited. “We had to base our outgoing flights in Malta and all our fleet would return here at the end of the day and that hampered progress,” he said.
Mr Cappello explained that Air Malta had already signed a six-month contract to operate from the UK to Greece and Spain. “It is a six-month contract and we will operate 600 flights to carry 200,000 passengers,” he said.
This was just the beginning, said Mr Cappello. “Air Malta is looking at this as an opportunity for growth. We are planning to open another base in Sicily and another on mainland Europe,” he said. He explained that operating a ferry service to Sicily from Malta was very expensive, considering the minimal travel distance involved. He also pointed out that as from Saturday, Air Malta will be operating a flight that is routed from Malta to Sicily–Gatwick–Sicily and returning to Malta.
Mr Cappello said the airline will be leasing two Airbus aircraft for the charter operations. “They will be staffed partly by Maltese and partly by foreign cabin crew and pilots. But the aircraft will be in Air Malta livery and will have Maltese registration numbers,” he explained.
Plans to operate part of the programme in winter, again using aircraft based in the UK, are also under review. “This should help Air Malta to offset the usual seasonal issues caused by tourism demand in the off season, giving us better utilisation of our aircraft,” said Mr Cappello.
The aircraft will be leased from the airline GATX and will be kitted-out to a 180-seat single class configuration. Asked by this newspaper how other airlines deciding to do the same in Malta would affect Air Malta, Mr Cappello said: “It doesn’t really make a difference. We have to be competitive and do the same as everyone else. After all, there are other airlines already operating from Malta.” Mr Cappello added that there was already an Italian airline that had applied to set up a base in Malta.
When also asked whether Air Malta could keep up with the market research aspect, bearing in mind the huge fluctuations in the holiday destination sector, Mr Cappello said it would actually be easier. “The UK has the longest established holiday market and being based in the UK will allow us greater flexibility in deciding which routes to operate,” he said.
Mr Cappello said the idea first began to take shape last November. Asked whether it had come to fruition so quickly due to the Air Malta Rescue Package, Mr Cappello said: “No, we were thinking about doing it anyway, but it is obviously linked because it is a source of additional revenue for the company.”
Mr Cappello also said that other previous projects to have flights from Malta to New York and Australia had been put on the back burner. “They are high risk routes and at this point in time they are not a priority. The charter lines will be much more cost effective and much less of a risk,” he said.