Air Malta to operate charter flights out of UK

Air Malta has set up a base in the UK to operate charter flights from Birmingham and Manchester to a number of European destinations, mainly Greece and Spain, between May and October.

Chief operating officer Joe Cappello said this was only the first of three European bases the company planned to develop within a three-year period. One of the other two bases would possibly be in Sicily.

The project, he said, was being seen as another opportunity to capitalise on intra-European activities made possible by Malta's European Union membership. Being a European Community airline would allow Air Malta to diversify its operations to more efficient, revenue-generating projects.

Earlier in the year, the national airline had announced the start of direct flights between Catania and London, which begin on Sunday. This service is also possible as a result of EU membership.

Mr Cappello said Air Malta was constantly assessing markets and commercially viable business prospects and had reacted immediately when presented with the opportunity of operating a series of charter flights until the end of October.

The airline appointed Mark Camilleri as project coordinator based in the UK to look after the operation. Air Malta's charter division at head office is handling commercial aspects with the assistance of Meridian Aviation UK Ltd, as UK-based charter consolidator.

Two Airbus planes have been leased for the purpose and together with between 42 and 62 cabin crew, and 20 pilots, will be based in the UK.

The crew includes both Maltese and non-Maltese nationals but all have been trained in Malta. Given the programmes that have been drawn up, the aircraft will log high utilisation during the peak 23 weeks between May and October.

This summer, the service has already been contracted to fly 600 flights carrying an average of 200,000 passengers.

The programme was launched in a soft way in February as Air Malta had been granted dispensation but not rights.

Mr Cappello said the airline saw this area as a potential source of growth. Plans to operate part of this programme in winter, again using aircraft that would be stationed in the UK, were under review. This would help Air Malta offset the usual seasonality issues caused by tourism demand for Malta and increase its aircraft utilisation substantially. The plan should also help the airline enhance its revenue stream.

Air Malta started the experiment in the UK as this was a safer market. The airline believed it provided the lowest risk and had the greatest potential.

The airline also knew the British market and many operators Air Malta was working with already operated to Malta.

The UK base is expected to be only the start of such operations for Air Malta. Within three years, the company planned to increase the number of aircraft in the UK to five and have another two bases in Europe, Mr Cappello said.

All this, he said, was becoming possible following EU membership, which Air Malta has been studying since 1990. Malta was no longer to be limited to one market; it was now to be able to spread its risk.

In practice this required a lot of planning and logistics. In the same way as Malta was opening up bases in other countries, other community carriers could also open up bases in Malta and there was already an application by an Italian airline.

In the face of this type of competition it was important to grasp opportunities as soon as possible to maximise potential, Mr Cappello added.

Asked about the company's plans for long haul operations, he said these were not priority routes for Air Malta at this moment.