Air Malta's 'low' fares

A new Air Malta advertisement exclaims: "Who said we don't have low fares?" Browsing through Air Malta's Website I saw the airline has introduced attractive offers to select destinations in Europe. I fly often to Vienna and normally pay Lm70 and Lm52 in taxes (using Flexifly and purchasing the ticket two months earlier as the price would be much higher otherwise).

I contacted my travel agent who told me that I would, with this offer, pay Lm45 (and Lm52 in taxes).

We all know that we have an incredible and ridiculous departure tax of Lm20 that applies to tickets departing from Malta so the price of Lm45 unfortunately shoots up to a massive Lm97 including departure tax, fuel surcharges, airport taxes.

The same offer for the same destination and period for residents of Austria (i.e. tickets originating from Austria) works out to €61 (around Lm27), a difference of Lm38!

These fares are unfair. It is obvious that the government and Air Malta are only interested in bringing over tourists but they do not care about the highly taxed Maltese who would also like to be tourists in other countries!

I urge Government to remove the ridiculous Lm20 departure tax and let low-cost airlines in on the market, not only for the benefit of tourism, but also for the Maltese people. Everyone has the right to travel.

Incidentally, I flew to Tunisia in September with a Flyaway Tours offer. There were problems with the hotel which was booked through Air Malta. When I returned to Malta I e-mailed Air Malta photos that illustrated the problems I faced. I did not receive a reply.

Another time I enquired via e-mail on the frequent flier programme. Again, I never received a reply!