Ryanair wants more routes

Ryanair is planning to introduce more destinations to Malta within a year as it celebrates the sale of 20,000 seats on its three routes in under one month.

"We are discussing a list of possible destinations that Ryanair could operate to Malta. There should definitely be developments within the next 12 months; hopefully before," said Bridget Dowling, Ryanair's marketing manager for southern Europe.

Among the destinations being considered are: Barcelona Girona Airport, Milan Bergamo Airport, Rome Ciampino Airport, Venice Treviso Airport, Nottingham East Midlands Airport, Liverpool Airport and Glasgow Prestwick Airport in the UK, and Stockholm-Bromma Airport.

When contacted by The Times, Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech confirmed that the government was in discussions with Ryanair, which had indicated a wish to expand its routes to Malta.

Asked if the government would consider offering market support on any of these eight routes, as it has done for Luton, Dublin and Pisa, Dr Zammit Dimech said the government was limiting its discussions to those routes indicated to low-cost airlines in April.

"By and large we are adhering to what Malta can handle on the routes we had announced in April. Barcelona Girona Airport is one of them," he said.

Dr Zammit Dimech said he would be willing to discuss the possibility of including Venice Treviso Airport and Stockholm-Bromma Airport but he ruled out the other destinations for market support.

"Of course, no destination is closed. However, we will only consider offering market support to destinations that are either not served or underserved. Routes that adversely affect our economic set-up cannot be considered," he said.

The issue of new routes was broached yesterday during a press conference at the Malta International Airport by Ms Dowling. She flew to Malta to celebrate the success of Ryanair's three new routes from Malta to Luton, Dublin and Pisa, by offering seats at €4.99 (Lm2.15), one way excluding taxes. This offer is only valid for one week.

The routes to London and Pisa start on October 31 while the Dublin route will open on February 9.

"We have sold more than 20,000 seats on these three routes since they were announced and we expect to see many more. This success shows the high demand for our seats, which are a fraction of the price of Air Malta's," she said.

Ryanair expects to carry 200,000 passengers in the first year on these three routes, with over 110,000 passengers are expected on the Luton route and 47,000 from Pisa and Dublin. "We expect to carry over 85,000 tourists into the country," she added.

Ms Dowling insisted that low fares did not mean inferior quality and the average age of its 111 aircraft, mostly Boeing 737s, was two-and-a-half years.

She said Ryanair was planning to introduce the facility of web check-in in Malta, allowing passengers travelling with hand luggage to check in between 48 to four hours prior to the flight to avoid queuing.

Asked about "hidden" costs such as being charged for using a credit card to pay for the flight and food on board the plane, Ms Dowling said all the costs were listed on its website.

Was Ryanair expecting the Malta routes to continue doing so well or would passengers resort to other airlines, once they had experienced low-cost?

"When we operated to Italy we wondered if Italians would fly low-cost. It's now become our second most important market after the UK, carrying 10 million passengers to and from Italy last year.

"So if a route is doing well before it actually starts operating, something we have witnessed in Malta, then it will continue doing well," she said.

Those who wish to take up Ryanair's €4.99 offer can log on to www.ryanair.com from today.