Saturday, 8th November 2008
End of an era for Scotland - Malta flights
With a tear in my eye I prepare to board the penultimate Scottish flight to the beautiful Maltese islands. I cannot stop asking myself: Why, why, why? Why has Air Malta cancelled these flights?
Tourism from the UK has dropped by over 13,700 in the first nine months of this year, yet numbers from Scotland have risen. Why, then, cancel the only flights?
Global fuel prices are at their lowest for many months, so why cancel the flight which has traditionally the highest occupancy percentage of all UK flights? Why tell the Malta Tourism Authority the void is to be filled by charter flights when in reality, a couple of token trips via Newcastle are planned for Christmas and Easter at a price of over £300? Do they not realise this can only harm Malta? Why this masochistic attitude?
Air Malta either cannot or will not answer these questions, and believe me I have tried. I have asked this of every one I could contact. A response was a novelty, but even my one response was inconclusive spin!
Well, I am ready to board now, my 14th visit this year, my 215th visit over the past 21 years but who cares? I can hear the bells toll. Will I be forced to make it my last?
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Comments
It makes me really happy to see non-Maltese citizens speak about Malta this way. I'm Maltese, and am currently completing my fourth year of uni studies in Dundee - so the Glasgow-Malta flight has been an incredibly useful one for me during the past years, as it's the cheapest (by far!!) option to visit Malta. It's also used by my family; my parents, two brothers and a 6-year old sister, who came to visit me a couple of months ago.
I graduate in June, and my family are once again trying to find viable flights. The new 'routes' to Scotland, served by AirMalta to London and then British Midlands to Scotland, amount to almost twice the price we last paid.
Furthermore, it used to cost me £150 to board a 4-hour flight home from Glasgow; now if I want to fly through AirMalta's portal the price goes up to £230 minimum.
I understand that AirMalta is a commercial airline, but the Glasgow flight was always full of people, being the only flight that served a direct Scotland-Malta link.
Here's to hoping a low-cost airline picks it up!
If it was not yielding the rights profits for KM, they should have adjusted their fares.....................we all know that not all routes can be as lucrative as Gatwick or Heathrow, but come on, stopping this service after some 20 years come as a bit of a blow for their customers, and then we complain about the reduction in number of visitors to Malta !
Air Malta is a commercial airline and therefore it seems obvious to me that the flights to/from Glasgow were not commercially viabile to operate since Air Malta decided to stop such flights. I also believe that there are good connections to Glasgow via London.
Whilst on the subject I would like to ask why so far No Low cost airline decided to start operating these flights ? Coult it be because it is not commercially viable ? I wonder !!