The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association welcomed the commencement of the Germanwings operation from Cologne and Stuttgart. The low-cost carrier will be operating four flights a week.

MHRA president Josef Formosa Gauci said this would help further increase the seat capacity to Malta from Germany in conjunction with the recent announcement that Air Malta was also laying on more flights to Germany.

Last year, due to a lack of seats Malta was not able to meet the demand from Germany at certain periods. Mr Formosa Gauci said this was again another step in the process of opening up the Maltese islands to low-cost carriers in line with the growth trend of this source of travel internationally.

He recalled that the commencement of low-cost carriers to Malta came about as a result of intense lobbying and scientific evaluation of the effects of such a direction over a long period by the MHRA.