A new national airline will make its maiden flight on March 31, replacing the current flag carrier which will operate its last flight on March 30.

To mark the occasion, the Gozo Philatelic Society is using its showcase at Il-Ħaġar museum in Victoria to display an assortment of Air Malta First Flight covers. The covers bear stamps cancelled on the date when Air Malta made its maiden flights to various destinations.

Most of these covers, in fact, refer to routes operated from 1972. These include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Brussels, Cairo, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kuwait, London, Lyons, Madrid, Manchester, Munich, Nantes, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Tripoli, Tunis, Vienna and Zurich. Cover flights operated by Lufthansa and Austrian airlines are also on display.

The flight covers on display were donated to the Gozo Philatelic Society by Wolfgang Juncker upon the death of his wife, Krista. Wolfgang, of Germany, intends to offer more material to the society in the near future.

The exhibition, on at Il-Ħaġar until February 28, is open 9am to 5pm seven days a week.

Entrance is free.