The likely sale of BMI to possibly either IAG (British Airways – Iberia) or maybe Virgin (49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines) raises the question of what will happen to the code-share flights that the currently Lufthansa subsidiary operated in conjunction with Air Malta in the medium to long-term if such a sale takes place? After all, Air Malta, while independent, is generally more geared towards Star Alliance members, and IAG is the core of Oneworld. In the following, we will look at some, not all, of Air Malta’s code-shares, as well as at some potential developments.

BMI-UK routes

Due to pressure caused by high oil prices and the resultant high trip costs, subsidised parallel flights (although there have also been some genuinely new UK routes, such as Belfast, or as Bournemouth was), the challenges of the UK consumer market, plus maybe the money paid to British football clubs pushing up overheads which then maybe had to be compensated for by cutting unprofitable capacity, Air Malta reduced its scheduled network to just London Heathrow and Gatwick and Manchester remaining. Thankfully, some of their charter flights remain, such as Norwich, and hopefully these will continue to operate, but it is nowhere near the pre-2005 level, when Air Malta served more than a dozen UK airports with scheduled or charter routes.

So now, Air Malta has flights connecting a number of UK airports via Heathrow, Manchester – and Brussels – with BMI. If it is not possible to offer direct flights, then the feeder is still better than no connection at all. Generally, tourists want to fly point-to-point within Europe, and let us not forget that apart from the hassle and time element, every stopover might also push up costs significantly due to taxes, airport charges, etc. Vis-à-vis non-stop flights that might additionally be even cheaper, the volume generated then is clearly limited. True, for carriers it might be cheaper to have one full flight from a hub than two low load-factor flights on two non-stop routes.

At worst, one could try to re-route more traffic onto the Lufthansa and SN Brussels flights to transit in Germany and Belgium, and maybe add Zurich with Swiss International Air Lines as well, and keep relations with BMI regional if it continues as now. Actually, even now, routing via Germany (Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich) especially with the other segment operated by Lufthansa’s regional divisions, could already be faster for the customer on some routes.

The broadest domestic network in the UK itself is available through FlyBE with its fleet of Bombardier Q400 turboprops and Embraer 175/195 jets. FlyBE is independent but also operates code-shares for British Airways (OneWorld) and as with some flights to/from Germany; there could at some stage be some major development with Air France/Skyteam, and maybe one could also see them cooperating with Star or independent carriers – if it means extra business. Eastern Airways is focused on niche routes that bypass the big hubs, meaning none of Air Malta’s three remaining UK airports are linked in any way.

For Malta as a destination, it needs to be seen what a possible new owner would do with BMI’s low-cost subsidiary BMI Baby that currently links Malta with East Midlands airport, also once served by Air Malta.

Egyptair

So far, Air Malta has no code-share agreement with Egyptair, which is a Star Alliance carrier that has been quite successful in turning Cairo into a hub for traffic to/from Arabia, Asia and Africa. As a result of using smaller aircraft such as B737-800s on African routes, and for ‘thin’ shorter routes (like for Malta, Catania and Budapest) even just E170s, it has been able to build a network with an interesting frequency and keep routes open that would otherwise be unsustainable.

A code-share would help Egyptair further increase exposure in the Maltese market, which already is quite good thanks to heavy marketing: remember even a dedicated King Long yellow bus?

It is true that, basically, all the cities that are linked by Air Malta – and that would therefore potentially be of interest to transit passengers – already have direct links by Egyptair, or a feeder by another Star Alliance member to another Egyptair flight, so there would not exactly be much additional traffic for Air Malta. Nevertheless, it could offer customers yet another alternative, particularly those who prefer a “small and quick” airport such as MIA to a large airport with long walks through mega terminals and delays as a result of them operating at capacity. I am thinking in particular of Manchester and London-Gatwick, where there is no non-stop Star Alliance link available, so traffic presently passes through the likes of Frankfurt or Istanbul. MIA could be the compact alternative. Frankfurt is certainly in the optimum geographical position, but Malta is still on a par with Istanbul on a UK-Egypt trip – and then the overall travelling time, as well as total fares, has to be considered. Given that the Malta and Catania services operate on alternate days, maybe connections could be added to further increase the options available to customers. In any case, it would strengthen the Egyptair-Malta link and if it involved an Air Malta segment on the euro side, would improve loading and revenue there.

What could also be done is to raise more awareness in the ethnic market between Malta and Australia for connections via Cairo and then Bangkok, with the other most eastern sector operated by Thai (also a member of the Star Alliance), or via Johannesburg (Trans-Indian Ocean operated by Qantas for Star member South African). Emirates, however, has the advantage of necessitating just one change of planes, rather than two.

Etihad

Air Malta also has a code-share agreement with Etihad Airways, the national carrier of Abu Dhabi. Etihad contracted Air Malta in the set-up of the A320 sub-fleet with the provision of Maltese captains training new staff and also the provision of an aircraft to Abu Dhabi.

But since Air Malta does not fly to Abu Dhabi (although technically there would be no problem with the A319), and neither does Etihad fly to Malta, people are supposed to fly to London, then change on to an Etihad aircraft to fly to Abu Dhabi. So while the straight line between the two places is 4,000kms, the current routing via London is 7,600kms. Does this generate any traffic? After all, Emirates flies to Dubai airport – which is just 120kms by motorway from Abu Dhabi – on a daily basis.

Efforts should be made to retain a code-share, but on a routing that makes more sense – such as Istanbul or Athens, or at least Munich.

Turkish Airlines

The code-share agreement with Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines has been a very positive step, since it broadens the distribution channels and exposure for destination Malta, not just in Turkey itself but many areas particularly in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), the Arab world and Asia, saving many hours of travel and also money, thanks to competitive pricing for the connections. Over the last few years, Turkish Airlines has carried out a very impressive route network expansion, with very ambitious goals ahead. Any code-share to a niche destination such as Malta could deliver additional onward seats for Turkish, while Air Malta also profits by reaching out to customers otherwise reluctant to spend more time travelling via, say, Germany, if at all. Istanbul is also in a top geographical position when it comes to getting passengers from the People’s Republic of China to Malta.

The Istanbul flight had previously been part of a triangle with Sofia, which in turn was this summer coupled with Athens. The question certainly is whether loads are sufficient for a 140-seat A319, given that Air Malta has no 90, 100 or 120-seat jet, since present generation planes can operate such routes at 20-40 per cent lower costs while right-sizing as far as load factors are concerned. The route is of strategic value for Malta as a country, and hopefully growth will also eventually eradicate the load-factor issue: for this growth, transit hubbing is crucial.

Lufthansa group

The code-shares on flights from Frankfurt and Munich are the backbone of Air Malta’s code-share side and indispensable for both the airline and the country in respect of both European and global connectivity and the broadening of distribution channels, while Lufthansa might also reach out to customers who did not identify the carrier with a holiday island air service.

The agreement with SN Brussels is definitely a plus as well. And, as already suggested in an item in early 2008 as a possible and overdue step, Air Malta has meanwhile indeed developed the overdue code-shares with Austrian Airlines and Swiss, currently two Lufthansa subsidiaries.

What is needed is a further increase in the connection opportunities via Munich and Frankfurt that can be actively marketed on the Air Malta website – after all, the core source for information regarding flights to Malta. This is an ongoing requirement.

Zurich is in a prime location for the western Europe area, bearing in mind the great connections Swissair/Crossair once offered to Malta.

But particular focus should be on Vienna: Austrian has a fantastic network in areas not covered by Air Malta, it is in an optimal location, has very competitive prices and, surely, MIA and its parent company, Vienna Airport, would welcome such a development.

Very clearly, things never remain settled in this field!