Harbourair Seaplanes this week launched the seaplane link between the Grand Harbour and Mgarr Harbour together with a schedule of scenic tours round the Maltese islands.

Departing from the Valletta Waterfront, Harbourair operates a DeHavilland DHC-3 Single Otter seaplane and has a schedule of five daily flights to and from Gozo, together with a number of scenic tours. The first flight departs from Valletta at 7.50am and the last flight from Mgarr, Gozo departs at 6.30pm.

The duration of the flight between the two islands, which carries up to 14 passengers, averages 15 minutes and costs Lm12 for a one-way ticket.

Scenic tours, aimed at attracting the tourist market, especially cruise liner passengers, cost Lm27. Corporate companies are also making use of the scenic tour for clients and staff.

Winston Azzopardi, the local partner of the Canadian company that runs Harbourair Seaplanes, said that there has been a great demand for this service and several of the summer flights are already fully booked. He said “The service in itself as well as the concept of taking off and landing on water has created great interest. In fact the interest shown to date by the public and by tour operators is very encouraging and if everything moves as planned by next year, we hope to expand our services to include Sicily.”

Mr Azzopardi added that the service has already proved to be very popular with the cruise-passenger market as well as business travellers who can cross between both islands in a matter of minutes, saving precious time.

The Harbourair seaplane service will be the first air link with Gozo following the closure of the helicopter service.