Friday, 5th September 2008 - 14:19CET
Air Malta to introduce service fees for non-online bookings
Commission to travel agents slashed
Air Malta is introducing a service fee of €10 on tickets issued to customers through its sales offices and a €5 service fee as well as a telephone charge per call for tickets issued through its call centre, the airline said.
The new charges will become applicable on October 1. No service fees will be applied for internet bookings.
The airline said that these charges will help the airline to better manage and control non-online distribution channels, which were costlier to service.
It said that 60,000 flight sectors were booked by Maltese customers from Air Malta’s portal over the past year.
It said that the portal, launched in June last year, had been steadily increasing in popularity with 22 percent of the airline’s sales now being made through this channel.
“Maltese customers are turning to our portal and making their travel arrangements online... We are continuing to invest in our online distribution channels and supplementing them with innovative technologies to enhance our passenger experiences. Our portal presents Air Malta customers with a simple and transparent method without resorting to hidden charges. We are continuously working to offer a one-stop-shop of travel related products on airmalta.com”, it said.
The airline said that, in August, 2,400 customers chose their seats through the recently introduced web check-in, an increase of 77 percent over the previous month. Other recently introduced online services such as booking of hotel accommodation in Malta and abroad, purchase of travel insurance cover, and the 50 percent free excess luggage when purchased online, have continued to add value to the airline’s online channel.
The airline also said it will also be reducing the commission paid to travel agents from four per cent to one per cent.
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Comments
I will leave it up to people who know me, people I work with whether I have those qualities you mentioned. I can assure you Air Malta would not have been disappointed with me. But thanks for the advice.
Chris Said, Tonio Fenech, Joe Cassar, John Dalli , Mario Demarco, in particular have been working relentlessly uring the past months, that Dr Gonzi is sometimes being criticised for failing to appear in public. Why worry and interfere, when he has such capable people. They are showing that PN and Dr Gonzi mean business and will most probabaly all help to secure another PN victory in four years time.
On the other hand, in difficult times for all the world economies, all we heard from JM was that we need to introduce divorce and voting for 16 year olds! Unbelievable!
If they are richer than we think then they can afford to pay the extra fee!!!!
@M. Schembri
Attitude, loyalty and the will to perform is what interviewers look for in an employee. Qualifications are there to restrict the number of applicants and for no other reasons. I have learnt this through personal experience.
Re. new charges, there are different marketing incentives one can use to direct more traffic to the website; a charge on call centre boookings and booking office is not the only solution. More aggressive e-marketing from Air Malta's end is necessary. Why should a customer making an enquiry through a call centre not incur a charge whereas a customer who books does? The latter will practically be paying for enquiries by non-purchasers. And what about those who don't have Internet or a debit/credit card?
Michael Plant
A discount should have been offered to people who book online... and not an increase in price for those who don't. It's a bit unfair to say the least.... especially for older folk.
Few months ago, Lufthansa had launched a programme to serve as a guidelines for the company's performance while the oil prices were hiking skywards. It approached its challenges in a holistic way where it involved its worldwide workers to contribute in helping the company. One main decision which was implemented immediately was to lower the personnel's salaries temporarily. The burden brought about was also shared with the customers where they had to pay from €5-€21 extra on various flights.
This was not a prosperity period for Lufthansa. Even though the flights were full, profit was nat guaranteed. But at least the airline managed to go on by minimising losses. That was its only alternative when faced with such problems. Nowadays, Lufthansa is considered as Europe's second largest airline and is also considering the introduction of a low-cost fleet.
You say that this is normal practice with airlines to charge a service fee...fair enough.
But then you try to justify it by saying its 'an additional overhead'? ridiculous. We are paying for a service which we are already paying for with the ticket...And for you to then go onto criticze Ryanair for doing the same with checked baggage is a bit hypocritical.
THEN you claim that it provides an incentive for booking online? You regard paying how much the ticket actually does cost an incentive as opposed to paying an unjustified extra? erm, no.
AIr Malta has been robbing us blind for far too long. Why did we have to wait for the low cost carriers to come into the market for Air Malta to get its act together and charge fairer prices in the first place? Then when times get tough they put their prices up and go crying to the government.
If i had the choice i would fly another airline....even Ryanair.
I do believe that Airmalta should become privatised and that the govt. should STOP interrupting in its operations. Dont forget people that majority of airlines in europe are privatised and the govt. rarely influence in its decisioins. Then why Malta is different? ? ?
Any comments ....appreciated
Don't you remember the panic arised by certain apologists like you (who were in Opposition in those times), whenever some 50c charge was introduced!!!! It is still echoing in our minds the cry of the "33 taxxa" from those who over two years have collected more than Lm100 000 000 additional revenue.......
"Energy and determination by the new cabinet???"
It sounds obvious from a particular being employed behind a pc to apologise PN.
1. If I had to travel out to Heathrow and then return from another airport, I will have to book two one-way tickets, which are more expensive. That's when I had to use Air Malta's MIA sales office, who do a great job. in giving me a better deal.
2. If I need three seats, and only two are available at a lower price, the booking engine automatically shifts your booking to more expensive seats. Great value for money, I'm sure everyone will agree.
3. What happens if I would like to redeem my KMiles against an air ticket? So, besides paying the fuel surcharge, would I also have to pay Eur 10 to have my "free" ticket?
4. Air Malta's MIA Sales Office does a fantastic job servicing customers who need tickets at the last minute - which are usually the more expensive and profitable for the airline - as well as effecting ticket changes and booking amendments on a 24 hour basis.
Quo vadis KM?
Air Malta has one of the youngest fleets of aircraft in Europe, so please those making unresearched comments refrain from doing so.
Ryan Air have the most indirect charges of any airline. They even charge for each piece of checked in baggage with complex tariffs if yo check them in online etc. The tickets invariabley end up more expensive than national carriers when you take into account that they fly to rural airports and not the centre of major cities. This incurrs more cost for transfer (sometimes up to 100km as in the case of Frankfurt Hahn).
Air Malta is one of the last airlines to introduce a fee for non-internet bookings, so basically you have been taxed by most of the other airlines until now except for Air Malta.
1. I feel much more at ease with middle-aged crew members - they know their job and receive proper training. A far cry from much younger crew.
2. Middle-aged crew members do not necessarily mean less smarter (God, where is logic in this country?) people.
3. The opinion regarding middle-age crew members smacks of age discrimination - I don't think that the EU or any other proper entity or union would be very amused.
Now you'll have to waste much more time browsing the net for hotels, reviews and so on and hope and pray that you don't end up in some dump and if you do how persuaded would you be to travel again unless to a destination already know?
This is not the gratitude you would expect from a national airline that has been well served by tour operators all these years. If costs are rising and you need to increase the fares then do so globally and fairly. People are not all stupid, and would be willing to pay a little bit extra to know that they are travelling safely, with good service and professional staff who would know what to do in case of an emergency and not be the first to panic. Low-cost airline pilots are overworked and it's just a matter of time. Airmalta should not follow their example.
I still however think KM went about it the wrong way. It would have been better to offer a 10 euro discount to those booking online and a 5 euro discount to those using the call centre. It is all in the detail and the word savings sounds better than charges!
They rather should pay attention to those hot oven coaches that in the middle of summer their aircondition is switched off or broken. Still Air Malta finds it ok to use them and pack passengers like sardines in temperatures well above than 40 degrees inside.
One of the greatest complaints I have is leg-space on their planes. You can almost eat the back of the seat in front of you! Very claustrophobic.
And many of the staff they have, are not up to scratch! Especially in summer.
Air Malta are still getting substantial business from people who are afraid or not able to use the Internet or want a personal face to face service. Successful companies abroad are hybrid companies not purely virtual ones.
The Internet is different from a bank charge in that your competitors are only aclick away.
Once you become confident in using the Internet you become price savvy and conscious and whilst I still prefer to travel Air Malta when the price is right , in situations where it suits me I use the other airlines because before making a booking I now check every single carrier.
Next week I will be flying to London using RyanAir because the price quoted for two tickets was over 300 euros cheaper than AirMalta. In the Xmas period I will be flying Air Malta to London because the price they quoted was only 50 euros per ticket more which is the maximum premium I am willing to give them for the extra bit of service and convenience which they deliver.
Airmalta is keeping pace with the modern world, it is in business and like any other business enterprise it is there to make a profit. It could have easily closed down all its sales offices and do away with the costs of running them. The service is still being provided and it makes a lot of business sense to levy the charge once these offices are being kept open. Prosit AirMalta.
By modernizing there fleet, I don't mean buy new planes.
Update the interior and put in new seats.
well there are many fish in the sea !!!
Air Malta is one of the safest airlines in Europe and have good customer care and the workers give a good service to all their that is why people choose Air Malta. I dont know why all these disgusting comments about our national Airline. What is your comparison about with Ganni ta Xarabank. This is nonsense.
I travelled with Air Malta and will continue to travel with our National Airline and thanks all the workers for the professional service they give to all the passengers.
What on earth does Dr Sant have to do with this issue? The only link that Dr Sant may have with this issue, is that had it been for Dr Sant, who opposesd every change on earth, Malta is still not served by low cost airlines. The result would have been that the no. of tourists would have continued to decline, Airmalta would have continued to fly empty planes and we customers would have no other choice but to fly Airmalta. At least now we have a choice. Just checked a return flight with Ryanair in October for about Euro 30 return including all charges, only carrying a handluggage.
It's amazing how people such as you cannot stand the fact that Labour remains in opposition and the PN is still in government, and will probably remain for some time judging by the new cabinet's energy and determination to tackle change instead of preferring the status quo.
Eventually the only difference that will remain between Air Malta and the rest of the low-cost airlines will be that of getting a low-cost shoddy service at double the price of a low-cost ticket.
And you can bet your left foot that it will still be making losses!
It's not the opportunate moment to introduce these fees when Ryanair is offering return fares of 10 euros plus a minimal card fee for travel in October and November to Bari, Valencia and Pisa, travelling with hand luggage.
Although it is a known fact that Airmalta Head office is more than overstaffed and Airmalta customers are making good for these inefficiencies by paying higher fares,Airmalta decided to outsource its call centre operations, obviously at an extra cost. The opening of a call centre was given much prominence by Airmalta about a year ago. Now after only a year, Airmalta's management is panicking about the costs.
What's that for good planning and foresight? Some things never change. Some years back before Malta joined the EU, Louis Grech, ex Airmalta chairman and now MEP, was saying that Airmalta was more than ready for competition from other airlines. And as soon as low cost airlines arrived, after years of overcharging and flying empty planes, the management at Airmalta started panicking and Austin Gatt tried to defend them at the Amitex Fair by criticising Ryanair. Little did they know that competition will prove to be healthy, as Airmalta passenger figures are showing.
modernise there fleet? are you for real or what? do you the average age of the Air Malta's fleet?
Despite the compettion, fuel surcharge etc..The most important is that big heads of corporation keep all their privilages ...company executive cars, free bills, free travelling, free lunches, and god knows what a salary !!! for doing nothing!!
And than when they bankrupt the corporation , they resign and take off their responsabilities.
Instead of adding this “tax”, how about giving a discount of €10 to €15 for people booking online. This could be a good incentive for more people to book their airline tickets online.
Air Malta is working backwards. The way forward is to give incentives rather than penalize people. It is absolutely the wrong way to do things.
I managed to save €23 in tax and fees.
But then I realised it was gonna be costlier for me since I now have to pay €10 extra for each ticket I buy in CASH.
AIr Malta should reduce its costs rather than increasing fees! Or are we scared to wake up `Ganni tax-Xarabank` from his deep sleep when Airmalta lands in Gudja despite that the whole runway is free!!!!!!!
Rubbish Ms Mangion. Some people have the right mind not to get connected to internet and be dragged into a technological world. How can you speak for other people without one, and label them as "poor" people. Believe me, some of these people without internet connection are much richer than you think!
you make a point valid for most businesses, but probably not to AirMalta.
For starters Air Malta avoid competition. By and large, except for the London Gatwick, Manchester, Rome and Milan routes, they don't. They either code-share (which basically means they team up and divide the profits) or else they run (Barcelona, Madrid, Venice, all Irish and Scandinavian routes) leaving the field to low cost services.
On the few routes they do compete, except for Rome where the competition is the bankrupt Alitalia, they compete with low-cost carriers (LCCs) who only sell tickets through the internet anyway. So any leakage from KM cannot occur in this way.
Obviously KM abhor competition because they can't. With over 100 employees per aircraft that's out of the question. Their business model needs more than fine tuning and the introduction of fees for non-online booking, though that's a small step in the right direction. The significant reduction of employee costs and reduction of the network away from low-yielding routes marginal routes are possible major strides forward.
Besides the opening of these routes to LCCs will have positive impacts for tourism (see Spain, Ireland, Scandinavia)
And then again, even if you have internet, there are many who simply do not know where to go, and how to book a ticket. It is not that straight-forward for all of us!
And there are those who simply do NOT trust the internet for such transactions. These people, too, have a right to be protected, and not coerced into taking what they would call RISKS.
If they really wanted to improve online sales, they should have done it the other way: by offering incentives to online users rather than service fees for non-online bookings.
We are taking leave of our senses. There is no more care for the individual - we are losing our conscience as a nation, and we only use this term wherever it suits us politically.
I repeat: this does not concern me cos I always use online - but hey .... there are others to think of.
Will definitely be effecting Air Malta profits!!!!
E-commerce research has shown that On line sales channels cannibilise traditional bricks and mortar outlets but what is often commercially more worrying is that if you discriminate against the traditional outlets you may have substantial leakage of sales to competitors .
The suggestion by one blogger that Air Malta should at least maintain the MIA outlet at no ticket surcharge to clients makes I think a lot of business sense.
People who normally do not have access to internet normally can not afford to travel and incur such expenses. In my opinion this move will help a lot the airline to develop and in the medium to the long run, we as consumers will also gain in cheaper tariffs.
Until then I will countinue to use another carrier when flying in and out of Malta.
Day light rip off, mux hekk sur kappilan.
Toni
However, common sense seems to be quite a rare view these days.
But this is disgusting! It is unfair. Another tax! Nothing less.
Absolutely disgusting!
With regards to commission reduction to travel agent...is it applicable to Malta base travel agents only or are overseas travel agents also included? Are travel agents going to increase their charges to the customer to make up for the loss in revenue?
On another point, I could book a ticket from Malta to Genoa through AirOne website (Airmalta to Rome and then Airone to Genoa) but could not do the same through the Airmalta webiste. Can some from Airmalta state why?
Might as well, whilst at it, close down your sales office in Valletta and concentrate on one location, i.e. M.I.A.
Already, small travel agents have closed down. Others have emerged. This is the final blow from the national airline, following similar trends from other IATA airlines on the local market. Will I.T.S. continue to cater with courses for Travel Agents? I guess, there is no need anymore.
Poor employees at the sales office!! I guess they will start searching for a new job.