As airlines battle with high oil prices and the impact of the financial crisis on travel demand, tourism stakeholders in Malta are aiming to increase the number of tourists on fewer flights.

The vision of the MHRA is to have the same number of seats in winter as we have in summer- Tony Zahra

After a record summer for tourism, the Tourism Ministry told The Times that the current economic scenario and challenges that the international aviation industry is facing make forecasts difficult for winter 2012/2013.

Total airline seat capacity should be similar to that of winter 2011/2012, a ministry spokesman said, though it is down on winter 2010/2011.

Last winter (November-March), 342,420 tourists came to Malta, a drop of 20,697 (5.7 per cent) over the previous winter, though the average length of stay was higher.

“The Government and the Tourism Authority (MTA) will be working closely with stakeholders to increase the passenger load factor in winter,” the spokesman said, adding they had been effective in doing the same last winter to partly neutralise the drop in seat capacity from winter 2010/2011.

Air Malta will operate 180 weekly flights to Malta this winter, down from 225 last winter and 264 in winter 2010/2011.

The national carrier will bring tourists to Malta from 34 destin-ations, down from 38 destinations last winter and 44 destinations the winter before.

Ryanair expects to carry around 210,000 passengers to and from Malta this winter, which is roughly the same as last winter but 20,000 less than winter 2010/2011.

The Irish carrier will operate a total of 36 weekly flights to Malta this winter, one less than the schedule for last winter.

It will fly to 17 destinations, six of which are in the UK and six of which are in Italy, Malta’s core markets for inbound and outbound tourism.

Last winter approximately 70,000 passengers were carried on Ryanair’s Malta-UK routes and 61,000 were carried on the Malta-Italy routes.

Ryanair’s Malta marketing manager, Luis Fernández-Mellado, said: “In the past we tried opening new winter markets for Malta (besides the UK and Italy), but the demand is not there.”

Meanwhile, Easyjet will not be operating winter flights to Malta from Milan and Rome for the second year running, while the Liverpool-Malta route has been cancelled for “commercial reasons”.

Tony Zahra, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), said the objective for this winter was to increase the passenger load factor by five per cent over last winter.

“We are optimistic that with all parties working closely together this can yet be achieved,” Mr Zahra said.

He added that the MHRA was working closely with MTA to create new winter sports events to attract visitors to the islands.

“The vision of the MHRA is to have the same number of seats in winter as we have in summer, thus having the same number of arrivals and running winter at least at breakeven levels,” he said, adding that currently most summer profits are eaten up by losses in winter.

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