The new airline which will replace Air Malta next month has received 370,000 bookings so far, with some 4,000 people booking flights every day, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana told parliament on Monday.

He said that the airline's seat load factor between March 31 and October was 30%, which was a very encouraging number so far.

The new airline, which will operate Air Malta's fleet of planes and most of its flight schedule, will be run by state-owned firm KM Malta Airlines. The airline is expected to bid for the Air Malta brand name, which is also state-owned.

The minister said good progress had been made in preparing the new airline to fly. Interviews with pilots have been concluded and new contracts are being signed.  Interviews are also being concluded with cabin crew, with whom new working conditions have also been agreed.

A call for applications for engineers and technicians would be issued shortly,  he said, now that working conditions had been agreed with the trade union. 

Progress was also in hand on the transfer of aircraft, landing slots and hangars as well as code-sharing agreements. A new code-sharing agreement with Lufthansa was reached last month.

A formula has also been prepared for those who had accumulated flight points to be given financial compensation, and they will be contacted later this month. 

Although much work remained to be done, Caruana said airline chairman David Curmi and his team were working hard to ensure that everything would be ready on time.

Importantly, they would ensure that the new airline met Malta's needs and was viable and profitable, the minister said. 

Caruana said that unfortunately, the current state of affairs had been reached because in the past everything but the profit motive was considered. The European Union had given Malta another chance to have its national airline, and this must not be lost, the minister said.