Ryanair will be operating four new routes by the last quarter of the year, linking Malta International Airport with Girona, Bari, Bremen and Stockholm, the government announced yesterday.

A call issued last month, which closed last Friday, asked for proposals for flights to Malta from Spain, Scandinavia, Bari and Bremen.

Ryanair will be operating three flights a week from Girona, Bari and Bremen and two flights a week from Stockholm Nykoping. Flights from Girona, Bari and Stockholm Nykoping will commence on 30 October, and flights from Bremen will commence on 25 September.

Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said that with these new routes, Ryanair would be operating a total of seven routes and bringing to Malta about 160,000 passengers a year.

He pointed out that five other low-cost carriers were operating to and from Malta and in a whole year these low-cost carriers were bound to carry some 240,000 passengers in total.