Low-cost airlines

I refer to the meeting held on June 14 between the Tourism Minister and Ryanair's head of flight development. It resulted that following a feasibility study, Ryanair intends commencing its flight operations from Malta to destinations in the Iberian Peninsula, namely, Gerona in Spain and Porto in Portugal.

Evidently, the local authorities welcomed Ryanair wholeheartedly. Honestly, I was quite puzzled when I learnt that they eagerly granted a discounted fee. Our local authorities, for the first time in Malta, offered a concession to a low-cost airline in order to ease their flight operations to and from those "new" markets on the Iberian peninsula. I understood this offer would also be extended to other airlines operating flights to and from Spain and Portugal.

At the moment, there are no scheduled flights operating to the region. Is this a level playing field? It seems that we are giving the red carpet treatment to Ryanair. Needless to say, the Iberian market has never been exploited enough, whether by our local carrier or through other national airlines like Iberia or TAP Air Portugal. I believe that demand for such destinations is highly seasonal, but this is simply my personal opinion. I believe that such concessions should have been in place earlier.

This ambitious, giant, low-cost carrier is aiming to bring to our shores more than three million tourists. All well and good. Perhaps they will be able to do this and increase revenues for the tourism industry. However, if the demand to and from Malta declines, they would without a doubt reconsider their strategic decisions. They could possibly withdraw their services from an unprofitable route. They mean business of course!