Updated with details on winter route services cutbacks - Ryanair said today that it had welcomed its three millionth passenger on its Malta services. Airline officials said that Arthur Penhaligon and Andrea Erasmus from South Africa were being presented with a family voucher to fly between Malta and London Stansted in celebration.

The low cost airline started flying to Malta in October 2006 and now operates 27 routes to Malta. It set up a base in Malta in May 2010.

It expects to carry 870,000 passengers to and from Malta this year.

Ryanair is also launching a seat sale with thousands of seats starting from €12 for travel across Europe on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in November. Booking has to be made by October 11.

WINTER SERVICES

During a press conference, Luis Ferendez, marketing manager for Malta, said that during the winter, Ryanair will reduce Madrid-Malta route from three flights per week to two and suspend services to Valencia, Girona and Seville. The Girona and Seville routes were also suspended last winter.

There will be just one flight a week to Stockholm and Edinburgh; two per week to Eindhoven, Madrid, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Stansted, Dublin, Marseille, Bari, Pisa and Turin. There will be three flights a week to Luton, Treviso, Trapani and Bologna.

A number of other routes from Malta have been suspended for the winter. These are Billund, Kaunus, Olso, Krakow, Wroclaw, Bournemouth and Glasgow. They are almost certain to be reinstated in the summer Mr Fernandez said.

He said that the airline is this winter is operating 36 weekly flights, down from 75 in August and one less than last winter. One aircraft will continue to be based in Malta.

He said the cutbacks were dictated by low demand during the winter, as well as fuel prices.