Air Malta the best short-haul airline

The other day I read a letter attacking and condemning Air Malta on the grounds that a flight on which the correspondent, evidently a very inexperienced traveller, was booked, was delayed. It is likely that this traveller was English and therefore made a hobby of complaining, however, it should be understood that an aircraft is most often delayed by one of several possible causes.

Most usual is the traffic congestion in the approaches to that aeronautical disaster known as London Heathrow, necessitating the incoming flight to fly around in slowly descending circles till the airport can find space to land it. This cannot be blamed on Air Malta.

Secondly, there are technical glitches that delay aircraft while they are checked and fixed by the airline's engineers, and it is very much to Air Malta's credit that they make sure that their aircraft are always completely safe to fly. And thirdly, many aircraft are delayed by thoughtless passengers who arrive late at the boarding gate, caught by the lures of duty-free shopping or that one last dose of Dutch Courage that they need to give them the fortitude to fly at all.

I fly all the time for business reasons and although I have flown all over the face of this planet for the last 30 years or so, I have never encountered a better short-haul airline than Air Malta. So well done indeed to the crews who fly and those who maintain the aircraft, and also to the cabin crews who maintain the (sometimes very difficult) passengers with charm and efficiency.

Whenever I am travelling from some far-flung Antipodean island or somewhere deep in the concrete jungles of the US, I always start to feel that I am "home" when I board the Air Malta plane for that last leg back to this lovely island in which we have the privilege to live.

Thank you Air Malta.