Air Malta passengers up nine per cent

Air Malta has boosted its passenger numbers by nine per cent in the six months between August 2007 and January 2008 over the same period a year before, carrying about 60,000 more passengers.

The figure includes flights not originating from Malta. On the Malta routes the airline carried nearly 40,000 more passengers, an increase of 5.4 per cent.

Last month alone the overall increase was of over 11,000, a whopping 15.5 per cent. The airline said this was the sixth consecutive month that it registered strong passenger figures.

Passengers on the Malta-based routes in January increased by over 8,000 (12 per cent). The figure was boosted by an eight per cent increase in passengers from the UK, while on the Italy routes Air Malta registered an increase of 29 per cent, on France 36 per cent, Germany 45 per cent and Switzerland 34 per cent.

Statistics for January 2008 issued by Malta International Airport last week show that on specific routes operated solely by Air Malta, the Maltese airline carried 14,075 passengers (an increase of 32.9 per cent) on London Heathrow, 10,944 (21 per cent) on Frankfurt, and 5,339 (72.3 per cent) on Munich (the latter two flights are code-shared with Lufthansa).

Other Air Malta routes also registered significant increases, Air Malta said.

Preliminary trends show that this month Air Malta will be carrying 12 per cent more passengers over the same month last year.

Air Malta's chief executive officer Joe Cappello said these increased traffic figures were due to a number of commercial initiatives undertaken by the airline over the last few years.

These initiatives were further coupled with aggressive marketing and communications campaigns abroad that have focused on the short break market segment and the "extension" of the traditional summer season to the off-peak shoulder months.

The airline has also increased its marketing efforts targeting "individual" traffic and promoted the simplicity and transparency of competitive pricing and absence of hidden charges when booking online, he said.

Last year Air Malta spent around €2.8 million (Lm1.2 million) on advertising on its core markets of the UK, Germany, Italy and France.

In the UK, Air Malta has launched a major advertising campaign - the "Malta Break Escape".

However, Mr Cappello added, despite positive traffic, the airline is still facing financial challenges. Increasing fuel prices coupled with ferocious price competition on several routes have made the industry more fragile and more needed to be done to achieve economic viability for the airline.