Over 500 buy cheap flights to vote in referendum

More than 500 Maltese who live abroad have so far taken advantage of cheap flights offered by Air Malta to travel to the island and vote at the May 28 divorce referendum.

Over 870 phone calls were received by the airline’s call centre until Thursday evening and about 500 bookings were made mostly from the UK and Belgium, an Air Malta spokesman said.

Callers yesterday managed to get through after dialling the call centre’s number a few times, a big improvement on Thursday, the day bookings opened, when many people spent hours trying to book flights for themselves or relatives.

Callers found the line busy when they dialled the call centre number released by the airline the previous day specifically for reservations. Some complained that when they finally got through they found that flights were already fully booked.

Air Malta said the problem was caused by “technical difficulties” that had been solved by Thursday afternoon. It added eight extra flights from Luxemburg, London Gatwick, Manchester and Brussels and is operating its call centre Monday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Air Malta is offering return tickets at €35 to people living overseas who are eligible to vote. The cheap travel arrangements will be valid for the period between May 18 and June 5 and those living abroad will be able to cast their vote on May 21 if they cannot be in Malta on May 28.

Meanwhile, Air Malta said operations at the Fontanarossa Airport in Catania were back to normal following disruptions in the Sicilian airspace caused by a volcanic ash cloud. A flight had to be cancelled on Thursday but the scheduled service yesterday morning was operated as planned.

Air Malta put on an extra flight in the afternoon for passengers’ convenience, the airline said.