Air Malta plans to cut UK flights deemed worrying

A reduction of 12 Air Malta flights from three UK airports next summer could deal a major blow to the tourism industry, according to two of the main tour operators specialising on selling Malta in the UK.

Although sources close to the airline stressed that a final decision had not yet been taken, the schedule for summer 2011, which Air Malta sent to tour operators last week, had 12 flights missing, from three UK airports, slashing seat capacity from the UK, Malta’s main source market, by about 40,000 seats.

There are seven flights missing on 14 flights a week from Gatwick, three flights from Manchester and two from Birmingham. This could mean the loss of 300,000 bed nights, more than 10 times as many as had been added last year with a hyped-up measure that promoted sports-related conferences.

Questions sent to Air Malta last Friday regarding details of the planned cut in flights remained unanswered. However, in a statement last night, an airline spokesman confirmed the carrier “was looking at deploying its aircraft in the most profitable way”.

He also indicated Air Malta was looking into the possibility of new routes.

“The airline industry, in these turbulent times, is constantly looking at maximising the use of their fleet. It is normal business to have a route-by-route strategy and reassessing schedules on an ongoing basis. We are looking at existing routes and possible new ones to entice more return for Air Malta in these difficult times,” he said.

A spokesman for Chevron Holidays said such a drastic cut from the UK would “definitely” have serious repercussions on Malta’s tourism industry, especially with regard to seat prices.

“It’s not the hotels that are expensive in Malta or the cost of living. It’s Air Malta, which is inflating the price of packages we offer. The airline is saying some flights from the UK are not financially viable for it. But this cut means the seats on the remaining flights will go up and the British will simply go elsewhere,” the spokesman said.

A spokesman for another UK tour operator, Sunspot Holidays, said the reduction of flights from major UK airports was “worrying”, adding the cut alone meant close to 40,000 fewer passengers from the UK.

He said other countries, which the British were going for like Croatia, Turkey and Egypt, had better prices.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi steered clear from making any specific comment about the airline’s situation yesterday but said: “Air Malta has to take strategic decisions, which are necessary for it to address the financial situations prevailing in the world and continue its restructuring process that started six years ago. What happened in the past few years required Air Malta to be more aggressive in its restructuring, which will ensure the airline remained a success story.”

George Micallef, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, said such a decision could deal a major blow to the tourism industry, especially since it was affecting the country’s source ­market.

He said while hoteliers could not dictate what Air Malta should do, the association felt the main stakeholders should be kept in the loop to participate in discussions on mitigation measures.

“We understand Air Malta’s predicament but we should be involved in the decision-making process. We are very concerned as this leaves Malta with 40,000 fewer seats with all the implications this will have on the industry as a whole. We are talking about the UK, Malta’s main source market and a country that is already facing problems. Fewer seats will result in a heftier price on the remaining seats,” he said.

David Sergeant, from the association representing cabin crew, said he did not expect such a decision to affect the permanent cabin crew but part-time students employed over the summer months. He said the workload in summer increased by a good 70 per cent and this was why cabin crew was employed to work in summer.