The first international flight to land at the newly-refurbished Comiso airport was a flight from Malta that landed yesterday at 9.20am.

The plane, a turbo Dash 8 belonging to Medavia, carried 22 tourists from Malta (including a television troupe) and departed from Comiso after around an hour carrying 50 Sicilian passengers, both tourists and guests of Ragusa tour operator Intermed.

Both flights were welcomed at each end with flowers and refreshments.

This flight is the first of a series of flights from now to September, twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which will help Sicily and Malta get nearer to each other since the flight only lasts 30 minutes.

The flight Malta – Comiso – Malta will be repeated today, taking back to Sicily the first tourists who benefited from the first inaugural flight offer.

The operators also hope to be able to operate up to three flights a week to the Pelagian Islands and some airports in North Africa.