Air Malta has continued to register high passenger figures for its sixth consecutive month. From August 2007 till January 2008, the airline carried almost 40,000 (+5.4 per cent) more passengers on its scheduled routes from its Malta base, when compared to the same period a year before. Overall (including 5th Freedom traffic – ie flights not originating from Malta) Air Malta registered 60,000 passengers (+9 per cent) over the same period last year.

In January 2008 alone, Air Malta registered an overall increase of over 11,000 (+15.5 per cent) passengers. Passengers on the Malta based routes increased by over 8,000 (+12 per cent). Last month (over January 2007) on the UK routes Air Malta carried +8 per cent more passengers while on Italy Air Malta registered an increase of +29 per cent, on France +36 per cent, Germany +45 per cent and Switzerland +34 per cent.

Statistics issued by Malta International Airport last week for January 2008, show that on specific routes operated solely by Air Malta, the Maltese airline carried 14,075 (+32.9 per cent) passengers to London Heathrow, 10,944 (+21 per cent) passengers to Frankfurt, and 5,339 (+72.3 per cent) passengers to Munich (the latter two flights are code-shared with Lufthansa). Other Air Malta routes also registered significant increases.

Preliminary trends also show that in February 2008, Air Malta will be carrying 12 per cent more passengers over the same month last year.

Commenting on these results Air Malta’s Chief Executive Officer, Joe Cappello said, “These higher traffic figures are the result of a number of commercial initiatives undertaken by the airline in these last years, coupled with aggressive marketing communications campaigns abroad that have focused on the short break market segment and the ‘extension’ of the traditional summer season to the off-peak shoulder months. The airline has also increased its marketing efforts targeting ‘individual’ traffic, and promoted the simplicity and transparency of its competitive pricing and absence of hidden charges when booking on-line.

In the UK, Air Malta has launched a major advertising campaign - the ‘Malta Break Escape’. The campaign presented an unbeatable travel offer with prices starting from GBP69.00 return, including taxes and charges. Two television campaigns on Sky News for a total of 12 weeks were booked including banner advertising on the popular Sky News portal.

Extensive print media campaigns were carried on daily London and national papers, board advertising in Goodison Park stadium of Everton Football Club, at the Anfield Road Stadium of Liverpool FC, in the Metro gazette which is distributed free of charge in London underground stations, together with poster ads on London underground trains. Similar campaigns were carried out in Italy’s major cities of Milan, Bologna, Rome, and Catania, in Paris and in the Germany cities of Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich.

However, despite these positive traffic figures which show that Air Malta is well on the road to recovery, the airline is still facing financial challenges.

The recent spikes in fuel prices, coupled with ferocious price competition on several routes, has made the industry more fragile and more has to be done to achieve economic viability for the airline.