Flights from and to Malta were yesterday affected by Italian air controllers’ and Lufthansa pilots’ strikes, causing delays for some 900 Air Malta passengers.

Lufthansa’s pilots’ strike, which started on Thursday and grounded more than half of the German airline’s long-haul flights, continued yesterday, affecting the scheduled Frankfurt service in the afternoon, which was called off.

The industrial action in Italy led to the cancellation of the Ryanair Turin-Malta-Turin flight and Alitalia’s Rome service.

Air Malta however, still operated its flights to Rome, Milan and Catania, which were operated at 6pm, when the traffic control strike ended.

The airline’s flight to Rome left at 6pm, eight and a half hours after its scheduled departure, while flights to Milan were delayed by nine hours. Air Malta’s Catania suffered a 50-minute delay.