Low-cost flights start from Germany

German low-cost airline Germanwings yesterday launched its service to Malta with direct flights from Cologne and Stuttgart.

The airline is expected to bring in about 13,000 visitors this year, the government said.

The airline will be operating four flights a week, two from each city. It is the third low-cost airline that has started flying to Malta. Ryanair, which flies to Luton, Pisa and Dublin, is this year expected to bring over 90,000 passengers while the Italian airline company Meridiana is expected to bring a further 6,000.

The national airline Air Malta recently announced it will be increasing its flights to Munich, Franfurt, Dusseldorf and Berlin in Germany, to Birmingham and Stansted in England and to Rome.

Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said operations by Germanwings coupled with enhanced frequency of flights by Air Malta to Germany would solve the problem faced last year when a large number of German people could not come to Malta because not enough flights were available.

He said he believed more flights between Malta and Germany would contribute to the continued expansion of the German market.