Air Malta inaugurated a twice-weekly scheduled service between Catania and Vienna airport during a press conference held at Catania airport.
Present at the conference were Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, regional councillor Sandro Pappalardo, Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion, Società Aeroporto Catania president Daniela Baglieri, SAC CEO Nico Torrisi, Air Malta’s CCO Paul Sies and Pietro Agen, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Southeast Sicily.
Dr Mizzi said: “We are thrilled to be launching Air Malta’s intra-European flights between Catania and Vienna. The launch of this new service, which has been absent for a number of years, forms part of the Maltese government’s growth strategy for the airline and supports our commitment to establishing this company as the airline of the Mediterranean islands.”
Dr Mangion added that Sicily has been a very important market since “we started flying to Catania on April 1, 1981. Today we have a double-daily flight in winter, with more frequencies in summer, connecting the Air Malta network to Catania.”
Mr Sies said Air Malta had increased its passenger figures by 7.3 per cent. “Over the past year we have changed our commercial strategy successfully, and recent months have shown over 20 per cent growth year over year.”
Air Malta is not only selling Malta and Vienna from Catania, but offers connections to many destinations like Casablanca and Tel Aviv, offering local travel agents more choice to sell to its customers and allowing more people to reach Sicily.
Mrs Baglieri and Mr Torrisi said: “For SAC and for all the territory of eastern Sicily, the choice of Air Malta to cover the Catania-Vienna route with a bi-weekly flight is particularly significant; not only because it connects Sicily to Austria with the comforts of a great airline, but also because this announcement comes just one month after the start of flights between Malta and Comiso.”
The introduction of this route is an opportunity for Air Malta to explore further market opportunities and start positioning itself as the leading carrier connecting several Mediterranean islands to important regions in Europe and across the Mediterranean.
Customers will be able to book flights through any travel agent in Italy, Austria and Malta, or from www.airmalta.com, online travel agents and by calling Air Malta’s Call Centre on 2166 2211 from Malta, 0820 901 271 from Austria and 199 259 103 from Italy.