Air Malta to operate 120 weekly flights this winter

This winter Air Malta will operate about 120 flights every week to 35 scheduled destinations while continuing its low-cost service Fare 4 U to London Stansted.

The timetable, which runs from Sunday to March 26, will also see the airline's introduction of a new pricing approach on its entire network through FlexiFly.

Dominic Attard, the airline's chief officer of strategic planning, explained that FlexiFly, which will start operating on Monday, was based on the concept of one-way fares. This service was a radical departure from Air Malta's traditional pricing and was intended to reduce ticket prices substantially while making business class fares more affordable, he explained.

The lowest one-way introductory fare from Malta is Lm17 to Catania, Palermo and Tunis. London, Heathrow and Gatwick, start at Lm35 while most of the other European routes start at Lm32.

Similar fares for travel to Malta are available from all foreign markets served by Air Malta, allowing tourists to benefit from these reduced prices.

Mr Attard, who was speaking at the launch of the airline's winter operations and the 60-page winter Flyaway Tours brochure, said all the fares were exclusive of airport taxes, fees and other charges.

An added advantage of FlexiFly was that the fares have a maximum validity of one year with no minimum stay restrictions.

Air Malta will be extending its popular products, successfully launched in summer to the winter season, Mr Attard said.

The low-cost service to London's Stansted proved extremely popular with Air Malta's customers and the airline will continue its three weekly operation to the UK capital.

Air Malta has also combined its weekly Lyon operation with Marseille, offering the latter as a new destination this winter.

The timetable also features Air Malta's intra-European flights - Catania to Gatwick and Stockholm to Oslo - that have also been extended throughout the winter months.

A new service to Brussels on Mondays has been introduced, in addition to the already established Thursday, Saturday and Sunday operations.

Delving into the new Flyaway Tours brochure, Mr Attard said people could choose from a fantastic selection of affordable skiing holidays in mountain resorts; weekend breaks; packages to celebrate Christmas and New Year abroad; city breaks and special interest holidays among others.

Value-for-money five-night skiing holidays in the charming Troodos Mountains in Cyprus were being offered at only Lm130 including airfare and transfers. A three-night stay at the Pamporovo resort in Bulgaria on half board was available at only Lm 114.

Packages for weekend breaks inclusive of airfare and accommodation to Sicily were available at Lm51; to Rome for Lm96 and to Vienna for Lm99.

Other packages to Tunisia, the Dolomites, Abruzzo, Austria, Bulgaria, London, Brussels and Frankfurt were available.

"We are in the midst of our fleet roll-over programme with half of the aircraft (A319/A320) already delivered. We are in fact seeing substantial advantages and major cost savings arising from fleet commonality, particularly on maintenance and flight crew deployment," Mr Attard said.

www.airmalta.com