Six airlines will be offering direct connections to 17 airports in nine countries and regions, including Sicily, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, between July and October, Malta International Airport said on Thursday.

The destinations had already been announced by the government as it negotiated 'safe corridors' with countries deemed safe from Covid-19. Flights to some of the countries in the government list still have to be laid on, however. 

MIA said the summer schedule is regularly being updated to reflect the most recent developments.

The destinations and schedules so far can be seen here. They include seven airports in Germany, and two each in Ireland and Switzerland. The airlines are Air Malta, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Lufthansa, Swiss and Luxair.

The airport urged travellers to check what health and safety protocols are in place at their preferred destination prior to booking a flight. 

With tourist air traffic banned, the airport during May handled just 3,081 passengers who travelled on repatriation flights, compared to 670,000 passenger movements in May 2019.

There were just 283 take-offs and landings last month.

Forty-three per cent of flights in May were humanitarian and repatriation, ferrying passengers to and from 10 countries. The rest were cargo flights, which saw an increase of 11%  over the same month last year.