Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair, which has served the Malta route for more than five months now, has presented a new proposal to the government, as it would like to further its operations in Malta, said Bridget Dowling, sales and marketing manager at Ryanair for southern Europe.
“We really do see the potential in Malta,” said Ms Dowling, as she replied to questions at the Vodafone Economic Forum yesterday, the theme of which was “Does Malta need more low-cost flights?”
Ryanair started serving the Malta route to and from Pisa and London Luton last October, while operations between Malta and Dublin started in February.
Ms Dowling said Ryanair was extremely successful with the introduction of the Malta route. With about 130,000 bookings being made already, she said it is estimated that about 200,000 passengers will be travelling on the three routes every year.
Keeping this in mind, about 200 jobs will be generated in Malta as a result of these operations, said Ms Dowling.
While she stopped short of giving further details regarding the airline’s proposal to serve “new” routes to and from Malta, she said the government’s reply to their proposal was somewhat delayed.
“We don’t really understand why there’s such a delay. There are lots of other airports in Europe interested in Ryanair; we also hope to continue to grow in Malta” she stated.
She insisted that while the airline will continue to be “cheap”, customer service will always be Ryanair’s number-one priority.
Ms Dowling also pointed out that according to a study carried out recently, it showed that Ryanair passengers are mostly middle to upper-class, so it does not mean that low-cost travellers do not have a large disposable income.
Gina Giani, commercial and marketing director at SAT Pisa airport, also participated in yesterday’s forum and her participation involved the outlining of the regional airport’s successes, particularly since Ryanair started operating from there in 1998.
“In a similar way to the situation in Malta, our main target is to seek ways of enlarging our catchment area beyond geographical limitations,” said Ms Giani, in line with the airport’s motto being “Keeping Tuscany’s profile high in the world.”
Forum moderator Philip Lingard said that while low-cost carriers accounted for about 90 per cent of all air traffic growth in Europe during the past decade, legacy carriers also continue to grow.
Increasing low-cost flights to and from Malta will not mean that carriers like Air Malta will have to suffer, he said.
He pointed out that the impact of low-cost carriers includes the growth of the real-estate sector and maintenance of prices in this market. While he also mentioned the obvious impact on the tourism industry, he said that 30 per cent of Europe’s business travellers use low-cost carriers.
“There is room for phenomenal growth in air traffic, particularly low-cost traffic, in Malta,” he said, adding that blockages to growth include the high departure taxes and the expensive landing charges.
Malta International Airport is still too expensive, both in relation to low-cost, as well as legacy carriers, said Mr Lingard.
He added that while Malta is an ideal destination, the cost of transport to get here is still considered to high and something must really be done by the authorities in this regard.