Air Malta 'most reliable' for baggage handling - but fails on punctuality

Air Malta is one of the most reliable airlines where baggage handling is concerned, but performs poorly on punctuality, a report issued by the Association of European Airlines has shown.

Just 5.9 bags per 1,000 Air Malta passengers went missing in 2004 - the third lowest among the 28 airlines surveyed by the European association.

Yet, the national airline ranks lowly on both the "on-time arrival" and "on-line departure" list, with only three-quarters of Air Malta's flights leaving on time.

The AEA Consumer Report covered the airlines' punctuality and baggage delivery performance for 2004.

Among all the airlines surveyed, 98.7 per cent of short/medium haul flights operated as planned and 82.7 per cent departed within 15 minute of schedule.

Baggage irregularities for the year were measured at 13.9 missing bags per 1,000 passengers. The great majority of missing bags are traced and delivered to their owners with a minimum of delay. In fact, on average, 85 per cent of the missing bags are traced and delivered to the passenger within 48 hours.

The report shows Air Malta to be the third most reliable baggage carrier, behind Meridiana Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

The worst performers are ironically two of Europe's leading airlines - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and British Airways - with 19.9 and 18.4 bags missing per 1,000 passengers respectively.

Air Malta however received a poor report where punctuality is concerned, with 73.9 per cent of the airline's arrivals and 74.4 per cent departures on schedule. Air Portugal and Icelandair are the other two airlines that rank badly with delays.

If you want to arrive bang on time then you would be better off catching Finnair or Luxair, which have a 90.2 per cent and 86.9 per cent "on-time arrival".

Air Malta does however receive a relatively clean sheet where flight regularity is concerned, which means the percentage of planned flights actually operated. The airline operated 99.5 per cent of its scheduled 14,839 flights in 2004. A flight may be cancelled due to bad weather, for technical reasons or other operational constraints.