MIA’s new CEO mentioned incentivising routes to/from any place in France, except Paris. This sounds interesting.

The big problem with all current routes, except Paris, is that they cease in winter, which is exactly when one needs more bed nights spent in hotels (this, not arrivals, is what really counts: arrivals just say how many people get off the plane).

So what could be in? After having looked at many other regions already, it is now time to take a look at the ‘Grande Nation’, which however cannot be seen isolated from airports in the neighbouring border areas, therefore also a quick look at Belgium and Luxembourg while not forgetting the Rhine valley.

Belgium

Brussels can be reached within 70 minutes of driving from almost any point in Belgium. It has year-round daily Air Malta flights, supplemented in summer by Jetairfly (twice weekly). Air Malta code-shares with Brussels Airlines. Furthermore, one is developing China traffic with Hainan Airlines. For public administration this is a most important route: no messing around here. Eastern and southern Belgium are additionally covered by Düsseldorf and Cologne (Air Malta and Germanwings, year-round), and Luxembourg (Luxair, most months). In the France context, Brussels also covers Lille / Nord-Pas-de-Calais and other parts of the northern borderline area. Clearly, links are more than sufficient.

France

France is way less densely populated than for example Belgium, former West Germany or central England. One has Paris as a huge centralist capital, a few big population clusters, and an otherwise thinly populated countryside with at best medium-sized regional capitals.

For Malta, France is maybe not an as important market as Britain, Germany and Italy, but still a major one. Flights have always been operated by a mix of Air Malta and French charter firms. Charter and low-fare airline Corsair (now Corsairfly) came in quite regularly with Airbus A330 widebodies, occasionally even B747s (580 seats). Air Malta looked at both Paris and the smaller cities/provincial capitals.

Air Malta and French charter carriers immediately fully compensated for the withdrawal of Corsair, which now concentrate on middle and long-haul markets and non-serial charters, which means it did not affect only Malta. There is certainly also a question as regards accommodation.

Tourist villages

As one could see, French tourists visiting Malta seemed to have liked tourist villages. How did this sector develop?

In Malta, the Ghadira facility is aimed at the Danish market. In the higher star category, one had a large tourist village near Xemxija called Mistra Village. It will be replaced by some skyscraper, which, some argue, will make that part of Malta more beautiful, while others disagree. Obviously more money could be made from the sale of the plot than with tourism, something future developers should consider.

On the lower star scale there was Hal Ferh (Golden Bay), an Air Malta subsidiary open to all tourists. One filled it with budget-oriented tourists, as well as high school excursion groups. Hal Ferh ceased operations some time ago. The re-development of Hal Ferh in private, tourist industry hands with good standards could be an option.

In case of a new tourist village development, it should be on an already previously developed area, like White Rocks. This site might also include a golf course, being easily accessible and situated as it is between the two big tourism clusters; this would be fine if one had the water; in any case it is a better compromise than destroying the remaining real natural habitat and/or agricultural land in other places.

So anyway, what about improving France routes?

Paris

Paris sees a year-round daily Air Malta scheduled link plus summer charter supplements by Air Mediterranee, which, together with Air Malta today, runs it for leading operators such as Nouvelles Frontiers (Corsair shareholder). Europe Airpost is also around sometimes. Paris is catered for adequately: Air Malta as scheduled low-fare airline is also open to tour operators, supplemented by leisure carriers.

The French east and Centre

France’s east is a “white area” on Malta’s sourcing map. The superb TGV and motorway connections to Paris and Lyons (airports) are clearly taking their toll on airport development in that area. Still there might be limited possibilities.

Metz/Nancy and the Luxembourg issue

Metz-Nancy Lorraine airport could maybe see a summer charter. While it would have zero negative effect on any current Air Malta operation, it might damage Luxair’s Luxembourg flight. If it remains a limited charter run, maybe both might co-exist, with the impact definitely less fatal than a run from the German Frankfurt-Hahn, which would kill Luxembourg immediately and severely damage the crucial link to Frankfurt International (Air Malta/Lufthansa), batter Cologne (Germanwings) and make one lose the Metz/Nancy area in total. Improvements for Luxembourg could be either Luxair switching the route to its new (larger) and fuel-efficient Bombardier Q400s instead of the Embraer 145s to significantly cut unit costs, or Air Malta might run (lower fares), as the market is small and planes are bigger, maybe in a combination. For the Luxembourg issue, see discussion by yours truly, TMID 23 April 2007.

Strasbourg

Another airport is Strasbourg, with its high spending power catchment area and also Germany’s state of Baden-Württemberg. The Alsace airport is far away enough from the crucial airports of Frankfurt, Zurich and Paris, and also Luxembourg, not to cause noteworthy cannibalisation. It could be linked by Air Malta twice weekly, if necessary maybe the weaker of the two flights could be combined with an eventual Luxembourg run, or a weak Frankfurt evening flight (southbound sector), after all no connection flights in Malta. One might start with summer, and then see how things develop. Alternatively, Regional could send an Embraer 190 or Fokker 100 (100-110 seats) (night or on weekends). Tour operator cooperation is essential. Strasbourg needs coordinated marketing both in France and Germany: this is an airport in the immediate vicinity of the border in the deepest heartland of the EU and we are in the Schengen age. Whether charter or scheduled is irrelevant.

Strasbourg might hit Germanwings in Stuttgart (160kms autobahn away) a bit, but way less than a Karlsruhe-Baden (German Rhine shore) run would, which additionally could seriously damage the performance of Frankfurt (Air Malta/Lufthansa) due to proximity. Certainly Strasbourg could damage Air Malta’s Basel charters. The advantage of supporting Strasbourg is however that, contrary to a Basel or Karlsruhe run, the two important connections to Zurich or Frankfurt would not be damaged (greater distance), while Stuttgart is also further away and still has expansion potential.

Fans will surely be disappointed that after legal issues about locally provided subsidies Strasbourg suddenly vanished from Ryanair’s route map. Well, what a coincidence…

Air Malta has a west-east line across central France with summer runs from Nantes, Poitiers, Clermont-Ferrand and Lyons; Nantes and Lyons running scheduled, the latter thrice weekly. Nantes is traditionally combined with Toulouse.

Lyons/Geneva

As explained in the 13 January issue, a solution for Lyons could be through a basic, twice weekly year-round link from nearby Geneva, e.g. by Easyjet, to which limited Air Malta summer flights from both Geneva and Lyons might be added during summer. Easyjet would take no business away for Air Malta in winter.

The South

For incoming travel one has Toulouse and Marseille flights as scheduled seasonal runs, the latter thrice weekly by Air Malta plus, very often, additional French charters. Girona (Ryanair) in Spain is not far from the border.

Nice

As suggested earlier, one might add Nice with two flights a week (Easyjet or Air Malta), though this is primarily an incoming airport. Nice would complete the line of airports across southern France.

Marseille, a difficult case

It would be surprising if Ryanair and Maltese tourism strategists have not been eyeing Marseille-Malta, which should have to run year-round. How is Ryanair’s situation there? Currently, there is mostly incoming tourism. Still, Malta could be an option, given that one also flies a quite atypical sector with Valencia-Malta. The massive dormant potential for Ryanair is however not Euro-Med outgoing but the outgoing African market. Marseille has a very large African community and additionally one has built up routes from Western Europe, useful for DIY transits. Much more could be in the pipeline, the only hindrance being Ryanair’s uncompetitive baggage rules and lack of open-skies agreements with some countries.

For Malta, Ryanair would, understandably, not fly during winter to drop it in summer. Yet with, say, three Ryanair flights (necessarily subsidised, after all it’s Ryanair), one might make the operation unprofitable for unsubsidised Air Malta. This is not an unimportant route for Air Malta in France and sometimes it does indeed run it year-round. Tour operators want to offer a destination from as many places as possible, in order to split marketing costs, and if one had no Air Malta flights in Marseille it might make offering the destination not more attractive. Sure, in winter there is nothing to lose. It is not easy. Whatever the outcome, it is hoped that it will not prove a simple swap like for Scandinavia. Ryanair is, legally, totally free to operate now, but if subsidies are paid this should only be done for winter – and be accessible also to others, without tricks. Air Malta’s advantage is that it offers not just low fares but a better quality in-flight product and is open to tour operators. Solutions for an Air Malta Marseille winter link could be combining it with for example Lyons (as done in the past), Toulouse, and maybe Clermont-Ferrand. Alternatively, Marseille could run non-stop both ways in winter with a subcontractor flying under Air Malta flight number (e.g. Air Malta’s subsidiary Medavia) with a Bombardier Q400, an 80-seat low-cost plane running very successfully by British LCC FlyBE. Generally, with such planes many seasonal routes within a range of roughly 1300kms could be kept open in winter with more adequate capacity instead of being temporarily shut down, thus a plus for the destination, while in summer one could further diversify the sourcing map at low risk and low costs.