Air Malta is selling 21 of its routes through the Ryanair website as part of a joint venture between the national carrier and the Irish low-cost airline.

The agreement came into effect on Tuesday and is being seen as the first step towards further cooperation between the two airlines, including the possibility of connecting services between Ryanair and Air Malta flights.

The Air Malta destinations on the Ryanair website include cities in Austria, Czechia, Israel, Morocco, Russia, Switzerland, Tunisia and Ukraine - all on routes not currently served by Ryanair.

Air Malta chief commercial officer Paul Sies said at a press conference that the agreement would allow the airline to tap into new markets and revenue streams, while enriching Ryanair’s website and offering customers more choice.

Ryanair chief commercial officer David O’Brien said the airline’s website was the largest in Europe with 50 million unique visitors per month, and was available in 17 languages including Chinese.

The agreement, he said, fed into Ryanair’s strategy to grow its website from a simple sales platform for the airline’s services to a comprehensive travel platform. Ryanair will also be receiving a commission on sales.

Tourism minister Konrad Mizzi said the joint venture would not have been possible a year ago as Air Malta did not have the right fare structure for the market. Since then, the airline has begun offering a low-cost Go Light fare, which is what will now be sold through Ryanair.

“The second level of collaboration will be to connect flights between Ryanair and Air Malta outside Europe, looking particularly at Africa,” Dr Mizzi said. “Air Malta will be expanding its services in North Africa and has begun exploring possibilities in the sub-Saharan region.”

Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion added that the project was the result of a multi-year IT investment, which had allowed for the integration of the two airline systems.

The two airlines also announced a joint seat sale on 74 Ryanair and Air Malta routes.

Talks on the new arrangement started a year ago

 

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