The Maltese seem to be getting used to booking their travel arrangements online and travelling on low cost flights is gaining popularity.

When asked this week, Ryanair communications manager Daniel de Carvalho explained that Ryanair traffic to and from Malta has been growing in line with their overall traffic growth trend in Europe.

The majority of Ryanair passengers book their flight online to reduce costs, thus doing away with the travel agent.

Flights to Bristol, Edinburgh and London are proving to be very popular. This indicates that Maltese may be using sterling’s depreciation for shopping and holiday trips to the UK.

He also pointed out that the Maltese are checking in fewer bags this summer. Ryanair welcomes passengers’ decision to travel with hand luggage only and further reduce the costs of flying. This summer, passengers are switching even faster from high fare airlines to Ryanair’s guaranteed lowest fares in order to beat the recession, the airline claims.

Mr de Carvalho does not think that the Maltese people are cutting their holidays short because of the recession. On the other hand, he said that Ryanair’s lowest fares with no fuel surcharges are exactly what Maltese travellers want to stay connected to the rest of Europe, especially during times of recession.

He added that the swine flu did not discourage people from travelling especially on short haul flights, which are the market served by Ryanair.

On Wednesday, our sister paper, The Malta Independent, reported a 40 per cent drop in outbound tourism. Fewer Maltese are choosing to go on holiday abroad this summer, when compared to previous years and this was shown both in official statistics and through the experience of leading travel agencies.

Last week, the National Statistics Office reported that outbound tourism in May had declined by 13.3 per cent over May last year.