Air Malta will launch a new twice-weekly direct route to and from Berlin in November, Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi said on Thursday.

Speaking at the annual tourism fair in Berlin, the minister said traffic from the German market increased by 23 per cent in 2017 over 2016.

"I am happy to note that Air Malta is fast become an agile organisation able to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing environment," Dr Mizzi said.

The new Berlin flights, he said, will be scheduled for Wednesdays and Sundays and frequency will be increased in summer if there was demand.

The move comes two months after the airline had quietly ditched the route to the German capital. 

The minister said that Malta had moved from being a resort destination to a city and culture destination.

Air Malta's chief commercial officer Paul Sies said: "The airline had operated this route mostly to facilitate tour operator traffic but stopped it last year due to weak demand. After an evaluation and with the enhanced sales power we gained with the introduction of the Go-Light product, our hand luggage only fare, and the new sales teams we appointed in Germany, the airline now sees an opportunity
to go back to Berlin as a full scheduled operator."

Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion added that this is the 14th new route opened by the airline in recent months.

The Maltese delegation headed by Konrad Mizzi (4th right) at the ITB fair in Berlin just after the announcement.