Lost luggage

I refer to the article Ryanair Says It Loses Less Baggage Than Air Malta (The Times, February 26).

For the third consecutive year Air Malta scored the lowest rate of delayed baggage (with 4.5 delayed bags per 1,000 passengers), ranking first in this category among European airlines. The Maltese airline also ranked second with 99.7 per cent of its flights operated according to its published schedule. These statistics were published in the Consumer Report for 2007 issued by the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

The AEA brings together 33 European established service and scheduled network carriers. These airlines collectively carry 343 million passengers, six million tons of cargo each year and operate 2,540 aircraft serving 605 destinations in 161 countries with 11,030 daily flights. AEA member airlines provide around 375,000 jobs directly, and generate a total turnover of €75 billion.

Achieving such results when benchmarked with other top European airlines is an achievement we at Air Malta are proud of.

The AEA report is based upon a voluntary commitment by the members of the Association to provide consumer information according to a set of commonly defined standards. As AEA clearly pointed out in their media release, "Any similar statistics reported by airlines (in this case Ryanair) who are not part of the AEA Consumer Report should not, under any circumstances, be construed as representing a fair comparison with the figures presented. AEA can guarantee the accuracy of such figures and indeed has reason to believe that they may represent entirely different performance criteria."

With full service treatment, a brand new environmentally friendly aircraft fleet together with quality in-flight entertainment, with free newspapers, a poolable 20 kg free baggage allowance for economy class passengers and 30 kg for Club Class passengers and an interlineable network where passengers can transit and continue their journeys beyond Air Malta's network of destinations, the Maltese airline is making sure that it continues to be the best value focused carrier operating the Malta route. Air Malta prides itself on offering these services without resorting to ludicrously hidden charges when booking online, checking-in luggage and when using the traditional check-in services.