The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has warmly welcomed the start of Germanwings flights from Cologne and Stuttgart.

MHRA president Josef Formosa Gauci said the service will help further to increase the seat capacity to Malta from Germany in conjunction with the recent announcement that Air Malta is also increasing flights to Germany.

"Last year, due to lack of seats, Malta was not able to meet demand at certain periods from Germany," he recalled.

Mr Formosa Gauci added that the new flights were another step in the process of opening up Malta to low-cost carriers in line with the growth trend of this source of travel internationally.

He noted that the commencement of low-cost flights to Malta came about as a result of intense lobbying and scientific evaluation of the effects by the MHRA.

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