Air Malta and Italian Serie A Champions Inter have signed a one-year commercial agreement which sees Air Malta becoming an official supplier of the team. It also provides for joint marketing activities.

The airline said the co-marketing and advertising will include perimeter advertising at San Siro when Inter play home matches, advertising on backdrops during Inter FC interviews, use of respective marks and logos, visibility of Air Malta logos in commercial areas, Air Malta TV spots to be shown on the mega screens at the stadium before matches, website links and and airline promotions both online and during matches.

Air Malta Chief Executive Joe Cappello said this was the second agreement the airline had reached with a top football organisation. Last year it signed a similar two-year agreement with the UK Premier league club Portsmouth.

This agreement is part of extensive marketing campaigns being undertaken by the airline to promote Malta across Europe especially in the UK, Germany, Italy and France.

"Through this agreement, we have secured global TV coverage through the extensive exposure that the Italian Serie A has around the world. Eighty percent of our market is incoming and thus we are committed invest heavily in promoting the Maltese islands abroad."

Air Malta this year increased the number of scheduled routes to Italy to seven: Milan, Rome, Catania, Reggio Calabria, Bologna, Palermo and Verona and passenger numbers from Italy are set to exceed those from Germany at almost 250,000.

On the Milan route alone, Air Malta traffic increased by 6%.