Air Malta halved its operating loss between October and December and increased its revenue, seat load factor and passenger figures.

The airline’s results for the third quarter show that it reduced the operating loss for the quarter to €4.8 million (Q3 2011: €9.8 million loss). The net result position after restructuring costs (largely one-time charges) and interest costs is a loss of €8.5 million (Q3 2011: €11.9 million loss).

This, Air Malta said, was anticipated in the restructuring plan approved by the European Commission.

It said that these positive interim 3rd quarter results were driven by constant improvements of the airline's revenue (+9.7 per cent to €47.7million), passengers numbers (+3.5 per cent to 377,951) and seat load factor (+1 per cent to 75.1 per cent).

Chief executive Peter Davies said that the results continued to confirm that the airline was on its way to recovery.

“Each and every action we have taken over the past two years was aimed to increase revenue and reduce costs. We are substantially on track in our revenue targets but much more needs to be done to reduce supplier costs.

“Our stronger financial platform now allows the company to enter into its second phase of development which includes a significant overhaul of business processes in our finance, cabin and ground services divisions.

“This is aimed at developing a more customer centric experience that will require the vital and responsible role of our employee unions as well as a change in management structure which will be announced next week.”

Mr Davies said that the challenges for Air Malta were still significant and the airline had to succeed in achieving its targeted operating break-even figure in the next financial year.