Air Malta, together with Air France, British Airways and SAS were hiding “their abysmal punctuality, lost baggage and cancelation statistics” because they could not compete with Ryanair’s industry leading service, the low cost airline claimed in a statement today.

Ryanair said it had the least lost bags, the fewest cancellations and the best on-time record of any major European airline.

Ryanair’s statement came after the the airlines’ representative group, the AEA, admitted it no longer published the statistics as they ‘caused us (AEA airlines) a great deal of grief’.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said that by refusing to publish up-to-date information the AEA was allowing its low service airline members to ignore passengers.

“Ryanair will continue to use the AEA’s most up-to-date punctuality, lost bag and cancellation data to highlight the rotten performance of Air Malta, BA, Air France, SAS and other high fares airlines who lose up to 20 bags per 1,000 passengers and frequently delay and cancel flights.

“The AEA’s position is clear, they hide the truth to avoid ‘a great deal of grief’ for their airline members yet ignore the grief they cause passengers every day by losing their bags and delaying and cancelling their flights,” Ryanair said.