Friday, 18th April 2008 - 15:58CET
Air Malta reports strong winter performance
Air Malta said today that, for the first time, it carried more than half a million passengers during winter (November - March) - an increase of 15% over last winter.
Chief Officer Commercial Brock Friesen said that these positive results were also reflected in figures issued this week by the National Statistics Office which confirmed Malta’s outgoing market had registered an increase of 31.6% in the first two months of this year.
He said that Air Malta carried 510,000 passengers on flights originating from its Malta base - an increase of 60,000 passengers (+15%) over last winter. Air Malta scheduled traffic rose 11% while charter traffic was up 21%.
Dr Friesen said Air Malta registered a double digit growth every month, from November till March - 11% in November, 12% in December, 17% in January, 17% in February, 15% in March. Over 2005/06 Air Malta registered a 22% growth
“This record growth will result into more destinations and frequencies to main European gateways giving the Maltese public better accessibility worldwide,” Dr Friesen said.
“These figures did not materialise by chance, or other external market factors including the start of operations of various low-cost airlines but are the result of number of Commercial initiatives which Air Malta has taken in recent years. We have reorganised our Commercial Division and outstation office network, enhanced our distribution tools, invested heavily in revenue management systems and reporting tools, setup an e-business unit and an international call centre and launched a new portal and booking engine amongst others.
“These initiatives were backed up by aggressive marketing communications campaigns across Europe especially in our core markets of the UK, Germany, Italy and France. We have focused on the short break market segment and the ‘extension’ of our traditional summer season to include our off-peak months,” he said.
Air Malta will be holding the popular AMITEX travel fair at Ta' Qali between April 24 and 27.
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Earlier this year my son booked flights, on the Air Malta website, to and from Malta from Stansted in June. Leaving on a Friday and returning eight days later on Saturday. He didn't print off his tickets at the time, but saved them to a folder and returned to the website last week to print his tickets.
To his dismay he found that there were now no flights from Stansted on a Friday and that his outbound flight was now from Gatwick; 80 miles further away, but his return flight was still into Stansted. Air Malta had changed their timetables and had failed to notify him.
If he drives to Gatwick and parks his car there, on returning to the UK he has to find a way of travelling the 80 miles from Stansted to Gatwick to collect his car and then, retrace his route to pass Stansted again to his home in Huntingdon.
There must be many more Air Malta customers who are as yet unaware the their flights have been changed from one airport to another many miles distant. Many of them will have already booked and paid for car parking and overnight accommodation.
Does Air Malta intend to inform these people or leave them to find out the hard way, possibly too late to make alternative arrangements?