Air Malta said today that it made an operating loss of €6.1 million in the first quarter of its financial year (April-June) - €1.2 million lower than projected and €3.9 million lower than in the same period last year. The airline registered an increased turnover on budget of €2.1m.
It said it was 'particularly pleased' with the result, which put in line with the financial projections made in the Restructuring Plan presented to the European Commission.
The airline said that during the quarter it carried 472,000 passengers and increased its passenger load factor by 2.6% to 75%.
Peter Davies, CEO said: "Air Malta is particularly pleased with these results as they continue to show that we are on track with the Restructuring Plan. We are
cautiously optimistic that we will be able to maintain this momentum and achieve our planned results at the end of this financial year. This we can achieve, despite some setbacks which we need to manage that include the OLT Express aircraft lease termination.
"We are working hard on a number of options to lease out this aircraft together with our cockpit crew as soon as possible to minimise the financial impact of this termination of lease."