Flights to and from Malta will be disrupted this Saturday due to planned strikes by Italian airport staff.  

Six Air Malta flights and two operated by Italian airline ITA Airways have been confirmed as being affected by the strikes, with disruptions to other airlines also possible.  

Flight KM612 from Malta to Rome Fiumicino will depart at 7am, 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, while return flight KM 613 will depart Rome at 9.30am, half an hour earlier than originally planned.  

Flights between the same two airports that evening will also be affected, each departing 55 minutes later than scheduled.  

The outgoing KM614 will now leave Malta at 9.40pm while the returning KM615 will depart from Rome at 11.55pm. 

Air Malta flights between Malta and Milan Linate will also be affected, with KM624 departing at 4pm, three hours and 20 minutes later than scheduled, and return flight KM625 leaving Rome at 7pm, three hours and 35 minutes later than planned.

The company’s route to Sicily will also be affected, with passengers booked on two cancelled flights between Malta and Catania offered alternative arrangements.  

Those who were booked onboard flight KM644, originally scheduled to depart Malta at 3:05pm, have been rebooked on flight KM642 taking off at 10pm.  

Meanwhile, those returning to Malta on flight KM645 – originally scheduled to leave Catania at 4:30pm – have been rebooked onto flight KM641, departing some nine hours earlier at 7:25am.

Two flights operated by ITA Airways between Malta and Rome Fiumicino have also been cancelled.

These are flight AZ884, originally scheduled to arrive in Malta from Rome at 2.25pm, and flight AZZ885 which had to leave Malta at 3.15pm.

Saturday will see staff at airports across Italy stage a walkout over pay and working conditions.  

The strike is expected to affect ground and baggage handling staff as well as air traffic controllers. 

Flights between 10am and 6pm will be affected by the industrial action, while those scheduled between 7 and 10am and from 6 to 9pm are protected from disruption.  

Other airlines have been contacted about possible disruptions. 

Malta Air pilots strike 

Ryanair has said it does not anticipate any of its Malta Air pilots will participate in a separate strike also taking place on Saturday, despite the announcement of industrial action by Italy’s transport unions.  

“Ryanair has comprehensive collective agreements in place covering all its pilots across Europe, including the national representative unions for pilots in Italy, and expects no participation of its Italy-based pilots and cabin crew during the national transport strikes,” a spokesperson said.  

The comment came in response to questions from Times of Malta after three of Italy’s transport unions announced that pilots working for Malta Air would stage a walkout for four hours between 12 and 4pm on Saturday.  

The strike is the result of joint action between the Italian Federation of Transport Workers, Uiltrasporti (Italian Union of Workers) and National Federation of Air Transport. 

In a statement posted to the Uiltrasporti website on Saturday, the action – affecting “pilots of the Malta Air company which operates Ryanair flights" – was attributed to an “absolutely unsatisfactory agreement” between pilots and the airline.  

The agreement, the statement read, was “not very respectful of the professionalism and contribution that the flight crew has ensured and which in particular, in the post-pandemic phase, has allowed the company a marked increase in profitability".

Malta Air is a subsidiary of Ryanair after being purchased by the Irish company in June 2019.   

In June, a three-day strike by Ryanair cabin crew unions in Spain, Portugal and Belgium led to the cancellation of dozens of flights. 

The airline could only guarantee 30 to 40% of its scheduled flights at the airport, a spokesperson for Brussels South Charleroi Airport had said at the time. 

Back in March, Malta Air CEO David O’Brien claimed that “misbehaviour” by Malta’s air traffic control was leading to longer flights and fuel wastage.  

Speaking at a press conference about his airline's summer schedule, he said "unprofessional" practices in the way aircraft were told to approach or take off from the country were costing his airline and others added fuel costs. 

"This misbehaviour needs to end by the summer. We need to see professionalism back in place. It is a privilege to be an air traffic controller on an island with one airport, and that privilege needs to be treated with respect," he said.