Air Malta’s plans to remove child fares as from 1 May are a blow to family travel, Nationalist Party spokesman Antoine Borg told The Malta Independent.

Mr Borg, who was contacted after his post on Facebook which said that the national carrier will be eliminating child fares, said that Malta is already lacking when it comes to places where foreign travellers can take their children.

He said he had been contacted by people who complain about this measure as it would now become more expensive for Maltese families to travel abroad.

Added to this, with the move taken by Air Malta, the chances are that Malta will continue to suffer as a family destination. He added that Malta’s competitiveness in the sector will be severely hit because of this measure.

A simple exercise carried out by The Malta Independent showed that a child between two and 11 years will be paying the same amount as an adult (see screenshot below).

We tried to book for a flight for one adult and one child on the London, and the fares are the same for both.

In a written reply to our story, Air Malta explained that the removal of the child fares coincided with other initiatives the airline has taken, included offers with low, attractive prices aimed for families.

Families are very important for us, and we are proud that they represent a fair share of our customers, the airline said.

As we realised that best value for money is crucial for our customers we have started the introduction of much more attractive fares for everybody, including the parents, such as really best value deals during our regular promotions that customers can subscribe to, with fares starting from as low as EUR44 one way including taxes, checked in bags and a light snack.

Our recent initiatives also include attractive carnets for frequent travellers including families with open return flight tickets to a destination of choice at a pre-discounted rate. In addition, although children occupy a seat like an adult, a child discount of 25% now applies for certain fares when booking Air Malta flights, whilst many competitors do not offer this opportunity.  

"We continue reviewing how we can offer a better experience to our different types of customers, including further services and offers for families. For example, we have just launched a special offer for our corporate customers, where with every adult ticket we give a free child fare. This applies for travel between May and September," the airline said.

"We have launched two weeks ago an online real time survey where customers can leave feedback about their experience with Air Malta and we do incorporate this in our considerations in order to ensure we best meet the requirements of our customers whilst offering a commercially viable option.

"We noted that families like all our customers are really looking for best deals overall, and look at their overall spend.

For the already discounted and very special rates, no child discounts apply but families actually gain overall with a much better price, in particular if they book early.

"Our fares have gone down significantly as a result, but we prefer to have more customers flying with Air Malta," the airline said.