Air Malta steps in as British Airways decides to suspend Gatwick flight

British Airways will be suspending its Malta route from London Gatwick on October 25 but Air Malta will be filling the gaps. British Airways said its decision was taken with "great regret" but the company was facing one of its harshest trading environments in its history.

"We continually review our business and make changes to our flight schedules to meet demand and we will only operate routes if they are profitable for the business," Mark Moscardini, British Airways commercial manager for Italy and Malta, said.

Its decision to revise a number of routes comes in the wake of a disastrous financial year. The company registered a loss of £401 million and recently asked all its 30,000 employees to volunteer to take between a week and a month of unpaid leave or work for free.

Once British Airways announced its decision, Air Malta immediately said it would add two more flights per week from November 1 and an additional weekly flight during the Christmas period. It would also deploy bigger aircraft on all the daily Gatwick services in the remaining winter months.

"This is in line with the airline's commercial strategy to extend the summer season and reduce the traditional traffic slowdown between summer and winter months. The additional shoulder traffic will bolster the local tourism industry during this challenging period," an Air Malta spokesman said.

During winter, British Airways would have operated four flights a week, so Air Malta's move would be replacing half the flights.

A spokesman for the Malta Tourism Authority explained the route was already well served by other airlines, which were not running at full capacity. Therefore, the tourism industry was not expected to face difficulties because of this change.

This is the second time British Airways ceased operations to Malta. The first time was in the late 1980s, when it also cited costs.

The London-Malta route was then taken over by the British Airways franchise GB Airways. Last year, GB Airways was taken over by Easyjet, which also took over the London-Malta route but British Airways began operating on the same route as well, doubling capacity.

"The withdrawal of the British Airways service will revert capacity to what it used to be when GB Airways was the operator of the route. In spite of the closure, the route is adequately serviced by Air Malta and Easyjet on a year-round basis," the MTA spokesman said.

Moreover, regular charter flights are operated from Gatwick airport every week, year round, by tour operators such as TUI and Thomas Cook, he said.

British Airways yesterday also announced it would be dropping services from Gatwick to Alicante, Palma, Madrid, Barcelona and Krakow and the airline would only fly to Varna in Bulgaria during the summer.

Customers booked to travel with British Airways after October 25 can contact the airline on 8006 2142 for a refund.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com