Ryanair, Europe’s leading low-cost airline, urged the Maltese government to expand its range of low-cost routes to the island in order to boost hotel room occupancy on a year-round basis.

Commenting on the recent statistics from the National Statistics Office, Ryanair’s Deputy Chief Executive Michael Cawley said: “The occupancy rate of 41.3 per cent for November 2006 which has just been published by the National Statistics Office is a legacy of complete reliance by the Maltese government on high-cost airlines.

“The propensity of high-cost airlines to charge high fares on a year-round basis means that there is a huge seasonality in tourism in Malta, resulting in disastrous levels of occupancy in the off-season.

“With Ryanair, there is no off-season as our load factors are as high in the winter as they are during the summer. Ryanair flexes its fares to maximise its seat occupancy on a year-round basis thereby creating demand for hotel rooms and providing capacity to fill otherwise-empty accommodation.

“Ryanair has launched three routes to Malta in a response to the modest initiative by the Maltese government and already the boost to tourism which these routes have brought about has been evident in the December figures.

“If however the Maltese government is serious about reviving tourism and regaining Malta’s market share in Europe, then it should vastly expand this initiative to many other routes so that the disastrous occupancy figures seen in November will not be repeated next year or thereafter.”