Meridiana opts to extend Malta flights schedule

Italian airline Meridiana was so satisfied with the results achieved by its Bologna-Malta service last summer it has decided to extend the schedule by two months this year.

The twice weekly service will be launched on March 25 and will run until September 30. Meridiana had inaugurated the Malta route on June 1, last year.

The flights are operated on Thursdays and Sundays, leaving Bologna at 11.55 a.m. and Malta at 2.50 p.m. The flight takes about one and a half hours.

Antonello Miccoli, Meridiana's area manager for Emilia Romagna, Marche, Toscana and Umbria, said the Malta route last year had yielded "optimum results".

He was speaking to Maltese journalists during a promotional tour to Bologna organised by Malta International Airport as part of its campaign to attract more airlines to Malta.

In the four months between June and September, Meridiana carried about 7,500 passengers, including a big number of Italian students travelling to Malta to learn English. Mr Miccoli said one had to put this performance in its proper perspective, in that the airline had decided to launch the service not too long before the flights actually started, which meant there was not much time to promote and sell the new route. He is very optimistic the service will prove just as successful this year. "I do hope more tourists from Malta will come to visit us too," Mr Miccoli said, noting that a good 95 per cent of the passengers carried last year originated from Bologna.

He said fares on the Malta route started from €9.

Meridiana has a fleet of 17 MD80s, four A319s and two ATR42s.