Air Malta said it had received a significant number of cancellations on the London Heathrow route when Malta was only accepting the Covid-19 physical vaccine certificate.

Malta was recently placed on the UK green travel list, which came into effect on 30 June.

Malta, however, is only accepting fully vaccinated people coming from the UK, while children aged between five and 12 can travel as long as they are accompanied by vaccinated parents or legal guardians and as long as they provide a negative PCR test carried out within 72 hours from their arrival in Malta.

Reports had emerged of people being turned away at the airports in the UK for not having a physical copy of the certificate, as Malta was not accepting the digital version, a situation which then changed on Thursday when Malta began accepting the digital version of the certificate.

On 15 June, Air Malta had announced that it had cancelled all of its scheduled flights to Manchester, as Malta was at the time left off the UK's green list. It also cancelled 11 return flights to and from London Heathrow, reducing the schedule to six times a week with a daily morning service except on Tuesdays. This newsroom asked Air Malta whether it will not be reconsidering that decision, given that UK tourists can now come to Malta.

"In the last five days Air Malta has received a significant number of cancellations on London Heathrow route for travel during the month of July with the route going into decline," an Air Malta spokesperson said on Thursday evening.

The spokesperson explained that these cancellations were due to the news that UK passengers required a physical copy of the UK vaccine certificate, as Malta was not accepting digital versions at the time.

A change in policy then came on Thursday,  where the government announced that Malta can now accept both the digital app version of the UK NHS vaccine certificate, as well as the paper version of the certificate, after a verifier app was created.

The airline's spokesperson said that until the cancellations trend is reversed and Air Malta sees a positive travel demand, the airline is unlikely to be adding any additional services on its UK routes. "However, Air Malta will continue to monitor developments in the market and will adapt its network accordingly as and when we see consistent positive growth signs." The airline, the spokesperson said, will monitor the situation closely following the news that digital certificates are being accepted.

The spokesperson also said that the airline "supports any initiative that facilitates easier travel through common systems and that reduce costs for travellers."