The national airline will be flying twice weekly to Parma as from 1 June.

The official announcement is scheduled for 1 April but tickets for the entire summer are already available, the Italian press said.

The flights will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays leaving MIA on Tuesdays at 8.45am and the return flight from the Giuseppe Verdi airport at 4pm while on Thursdays the flights leave Parma at 11.30am and Malta at 1.15pm.

There will be four classes of tickets, from the economy class costing some €100 in June but higher in July and August to club class costing €800 each way.

The authorities of the Giuseppe Verdi airport had been trying to get a flight from Malta since last year when flights between Parma and Naples were inaugurated.