Hoteliers welcome Ryanair's plans for Malta base

Ryanair's proposal to set a two-plane base in Malta was welcomed by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, which believed certain regions were still underserved.

"The more available seats, the better the chances of people coming to Malta. And at the right price, people will come," MHRA chief executive George Schembri said when contacted.

On Tuesday, the Irish low-cost airline proposed to set up a base in Malta, which would double its routes to the island as early as October. Ryanair officials, who met with Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco, were asking for a scheme that rewarded airlines bringing big volumes of passengers with lower airport costs.

Mr Schembri said that, considering that other airlines were cutting down routes, it was "healthy" to hear Ryanair was thinking of substantially increasing its routes to Malta. There was room for growth in routes from Germany, Spain and Scandinavia, although he recognised that Britain was quite well served.

"I think the UK is well served at this time but we need more flights from Germany and Scandinavia and would like to see Spain grow more. It would be good if the authorities had to take up Ryanair's challenge," he said.

Mr Schembri said the market was very price-sensitive and people were looking for bargains, which increased the attractiveness of low-cost carriers. He said travellers were making last-minute decisions, which made continuous marketing essential. "If you're out of sight, you're out of mind," he remarked.

Malta International Airport said it could only welcome any well thought out measure directed at incrementing additional traffic to Malta without disrupting the regular flow of already established routes.

MIA said it effectively supported the introduction of new routes, though well within the parameters of transparent and indiscriminate norms.

It said that in 2008 it had contributed €1 million - consisting of up to 40 per cent reduction on the passenger service charge over a three-year period and up to a 60 per cent reduction directed towards strategic destinations, also on a three-year period - as part of an incentive scheme to promote new destinations. The routes benefitting from such incentives included Bari, Girona, Stockholm, Venice and Edinburgh.

MIA insisted that its charges were well within the European average and its regulated fees had not been raised since 2006.

It said that the fact that there had not been any increase in charges for so long could easily be translated into a reduction in itself.

The only fee effected since was the PRM (persons with reduced mobility) charge, which, MIA noted, was imposed by virtue of an EU regulation.