A petition calling for direct flights between Malaga/Gibraltar and Malta, mostly for use by workers in the iGaming industry, is gathering pace.
The petition is mainly addressed to Norwegian Air, since many iGaming workers are Scandinavian, but the appeal extends to any other airline which might be interested in providing such a service.
The petition currently has 1,313 signatories.
“Each year, professionals (mainly in iGaming) lose hundreds of work hours travelling between Malta and the south of Spain (Malaga) and/or Gibraltar. This often involves very long layovers in foreign airports 1,000kms away, sometimes flying overnight, not to mention being expensive and massively inconvenience,” the petition states.
"We would like Norwegian Air to provide at least one scheduled flight per week (2 would be better) between Malaga (AGP) and Malta (MLA), and/or Gibraltar (GIB) to Malta (MLA). This would vastly reduce the wasted time spent travelling between these countries where iGaming is a huge and influential industry, and also increase the profits of Norwegian Air by creating more sales in direct flights.”
It is claimed that thousands of people travel often between southern Spain and/or Gibraltar to Malta, and are tired of flying halfway across Europe just to reach Malta.
Among those who commented on the petition, Gabriel Cortis from Sliema said that he lives in Malaga.
“So far I had to drive up to Madrid four times since last November. That is 536km away, 6 - 7 hours driving, just to get a Ryanair flight direct to Malta. I'm fed up of driving back and forth. Would love to see this happening! Especially that Malaga airport is very well connected with Europe and south America.”
John Cavallier wrote that an increase of business flights between Malta and Spain was needed due to the fact that the online industry was important in the relationship between both countries.
"An airline such as Norwegian with in-flight WiFi would be the most attractive option. Being said that I believe that a weekday flight to Madrid would be a better solution than a direct flight to Malaga. Norwegian has a base in Madrid but it only has a connection to Malta on weekends in a flight that targets tourism, not business.
"I think it would be more realistic to request Norwegian a weekday business travel Madrid-Malta, Malta-Madrid. We indeed are more interest in travelling between Malta and La Coruna or Santiago de Compostela nearby airport, than to the South of the Iberian peninsula."
Mark Weston, who is based in Spain added: "We travel to/from Malta at least once a month, always on a connecting flight that takes an average of eight hours total. Losing two full working days to travel round-trip result in a high cost for the year and many missed opportunities."