Air Malta is to start flying more frequently to London Heathrow and Catania airports and restart flights to four other destinations, some of them pending health and safety assessments.

Flights to Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, are expected to start as early as July 31 but flights to Kiev, Moscow Sheremetyevo and Tel Aviv are scheduled to restart by the first week of October depending on health and safety assessments.

The additional routes come hot on the heels of last week’s restart of flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan Linate, London Heathrow, Lisbon, Madrid, Palermo, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Orly. 

The airline said on Monday that its Manchester route will restart on August 1 while it will also increase flight frequencies to and from London Heathrow and Catania as of August.

It will be operating 10 weekly flight to and from London Heathrow and nine weekly flights on Catania. 

The airline’s flight schedule is based on the 'safe corridors' model which Maltese authorities have embraced to encourage travel between countries deemed to be low-risk for coronavirus.

Air Malta said in its statement that it was seeing a gradual increase in bookings, but was too early to assess passengers’ expectations and perceptions. 

By October, Air Malta said it hoped to operate scheduled services to Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Catania, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Kiev, Lisbon, London Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Palermo, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Paris Orly, Prague, Rome, Tel Aviv, Vienna, Zurich and Tunis. 

The airline last month made just over half of all its pilots redundant, saying talks with the union that represents them had failed.

Flights prices (including taxes and charges) start at €39 one way and are available online on www.airmalta.com and through all local and foreign travel agents. 

Customers must be at the airport two-and-a-half hours before the scheduled time of departure to clear the new procedures imposed by Health Authorities in various countries.