Mark Lavelle, Mellieħa
Two airlines' lack of transparency (1)
I wish to inform and warn readers of the service that they can expect to receive from Air Malta's service to and from Manchester. I have tried to find a contact e-mail address on Air Malta's web site for complaints but was unable to find one.
My complaint concerns the regular delays on flights to and from Manchester. I have experienced delays for two weeks running. The flight departing Luqa to Manchester on Thursday at 9.55 p.m. appears to always be delayed. Initially, the delay is two and a half hours and then it turns out to be three to four and a half hours. Various excuses are given to passengers.
Passengers are surprised to learn that they will be flying on Lat Charter airlines rather than an Air Malta aircraft. This of course means that passengers suffer from less leg room than Air Malta provide with no in-flight entertainment.
It is my opinion that this charter airline is now the regular airline flying to and from Manchester on the Thursday departure time of 9.55 p.m., and not Air Malta, so readers beware!
After landing at Manchester airport at the new landing time of 4.30 a.m. instead of 12.15 a.m. passengers then had to wait for over an hour for their baggage to appear. This, readers may think, is not the fault of Air Malta, however!
I have been informed by Manchester airport that each airline is responsible for the contracting of baggage handling. Air Malta use the services of Swissport which, it has become quite apparent, are providing a sub standard service.
I left the airport at 5.30 a.m. with my baggage and this meant that I had in fact suffered a delay of five hours. I had to be in a meeting at 9.30 a.m.
I would like know if any other readers suffer the same service with these flights.
The alternative is to book with Easyjet and it must be said that they provide a better service with regard to punctuality and reliability.
Any comments from Air Malta concerning this service would be appreciated.
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angelo camillery
Jul 2nd 2008, 08:35
something fishy about that lacharter, delays everyflight, happened to 2 of our sons coming from manchester and going too, happened to me and my wife last month too, and its usualy the same 3 hrs delay, are we being given the wrong times when we go to book?
G Wilson
Jul 1st 2008, 22:42
This Air Malta charter flight has been operating since the 1 May and I can tell you it has been delayed every single week since then. The reason is simple, the aircraft goes to Lanzarote before its flight to Malta and back. It has a scheduled take off time in the morning to Lanzarote at 7 am its scheduled arrival time back at Manchester is 1515. A total time of 8 hours 15 mins. and that is with all the good will in the world that it leaves Manchester on time which it hardly does. The problem is that the flight time to lanzarote is around 4 hours either way. Other airlines flying to Lanzarote that day have a round trip time of 9.15 mins to 9.35 mins. So I would think that this aircraft is always going to be late arriving and departing to Malta on Thursday. I note however that they have changed the departure slot at Manchester to Lanzarote this next week to 6.30 so lets see what happens. I won't hold my breath.
Joseph Calleja
Jul 1st 2008, 17:50
Mark here is the email address for Air Malta, but as I found out it won't do you much good. The responses are very short and don't expect much of a reply if they reply at all. Air Malta has a very poor customer service attitude and the passenger is not their main priority but you can try, good luck. I would like to know who the person in charge is so maybe I can deal with him instead of with incompetent employees.
send your email to: customer.care@airmalta.com.mt
Andrew Harding
Jul 1st 2008, 13:03
Yes Mark we agree fully on the slapdash attitude and service of LaCharter, we are business class frequent flyers with Air Malta and go to Malta often 5/6 times yearly and boy can one tell the difference between wonderfull Air Malta and this second rate charter , we were on the KM146 Manchester to Luqa on Thursday 5th June, when we arrived at Manchester there was no check in for our class of passenger , normally as a benefit of our status we go to our own que but oh no not on this occasion, we were told by the rather lifeless check in girl that there isn't one for this particular flight, secondly we had a 2.5 hour delay, and then when airborn they pulled the bar service without telling anyone which is unfair on holiday makers who fancy a few drinks as they are in holiday mode, but also makes no economic sense at all as they had a captive audience who wanted to buy from there expensive drinks menu,still the staff wouldn't serve as the pilot had allegedly told them not to ? regardless to say we hope we never fly with that joke LaCharter ever again.