Flight from Manchester habitually late

I write with reference to Mark Lavelle's letter regarding the Air Malta service on Thursday, to and from Manchester.

We spend most of the year on Gozo, and family and friends visit, preferring if possible to support Air Malta who have scheduled this flight at a very enticing time. My wife booked flight KM147 scheduled to leave Manchester at 4.45 p.m., on May 15. It was two hours, 45 minutes late in departing.

This, coupled with a baggage handling problem at Luqa meant that the passengers who needed to travel onwards to Gozo consequently missed the midnight ferry and had to sit waiting at Ċirkewwa until the 1.45 a.m. ferry. My wife did not arrive home until 2.30, a total journey time of 14 and a half hours from door to door.

Since then I have been monitoring this incoming flight on a weekly basis as we have friends coming out, some of whom have booked, or are looking to book this particular flight because of its "convenient" time, scheduled to arrive at 9.05 p.m. local time. All reasonable travellers accept that there are times when delays are beyond the airline's control, but not the same flights week in week out. The actual arrival times have been as follows when all should be 9.05 p.m.:

• May 15: Arrived 11.30 p.m.
• May 22: Arrived 3.30 a.m. the next day
• May 30: Arrived 1.30 a.m. the next day
• June 5: Arrived 11.10 p.m.
• June 12: Arrived 11.50 p.m.
• June 19: I was unable to check
• June 26: Arrived 1.30 a.m. the next day

As one can see, this flight out of Manchester is habitually late, and not just because of a 15/30 minute slot problem. The outgoing flight is subsequently delayed by the same amount of time with the passengers having been corralled at Luqa since 7.55 p.m.

Given that these flights have been unable to depart at their scheduled time for several months (and we will monitor future flights), coupled with the use of non-Air Malta aircraft, surely Air Malta is legally/morally breaching their contract of sale in allowing people to continue booking these flights knowing that the published time is a myth, and also that they will be in a non-Air Malta plane. Passengers honour their side of the contract by paying and turning up at the time insisted on and Air Malta should honour their side and fly passengers out at the scheduled time in an Air Malta plane.

Air Malta must come clean and say this is a charter partner over which they have no control (I am told the delay build-up is because this plane is shared with XL Holidays UK) and give those who have already booked the option to change flights at no extra cost. We are paying more than Air Malta's competitors charge for the "convenient" time slot and not getting it, and where does it say on its website that it will not be one of its planes?

I e-mailed Air Malta sales on June 9 and I am still awaiting their reply.