Your Sliema-Buġibba-Gozo ferry questions answered

After a nine-month delay, the ferry connecting Gozo to Sliema via Buġibba will finally begin operating on May 5.

After Times of Malta reported the announcement on Wednesday, many took to the comments sections on social media platforms to ask questions about the service, so we’ve done our best to answer them below.

Who will operate the service?

The company behind the ferry is Gozo Highspeed, operated jointly by Virtu Ferries and Gozo Highspeed.

How much will the trip cost?

The Sliema-Buġibba leg of the trip is free for Tallinja card holders.

Standard one-way fares are €8.50 between Sliema and Gozo  and €6.50 between Buġibba and Gozo. Gozo residents pay €2.25 for the former and €2 for the latter. Children up to three years old go free, as does anyone with a hospital appointment. Student and senior citizen discounts are also available.

A full breakdown of fares can be found here: https://gozohighspeed.com/pages/fares.

What is the timetable like?

During the summer schedule – in place between March and October – the first ferry from Sliema leaves at 5.45am. After a 30-minute trip, the ferry stops in Buġibba for 15 minutes before continuing to Sliema for another 30 minutes. In total, the journey from Gozo to Sliema will take one hour and 15 minutes. The last ferry from Sliema will leave at 10pm.

From Gozo, the first ferry leaves at 5.15am, while the last one leaves at 9.15pm.

While the winter schedule has yet to be published on the company’s website, the tender document for the service published by the government back in July stated that the last departure from Gozo in winter would be 4.15pm, whereas the last ferry from Sliema would be at 3.45pm.

Many readers lamented that, should the winter timetable remain in place, the last ferries would leave far too early for regular workers who would otherwise use the ferry to commute between their homes and workplaces.

Here’s the full summer schedule: https://gozohighspeed.com/pages/schedule.

Does this mean it will now take longer to get from Valletta to Gozo?

No – the new service is separate to the highspeed ferry between Valletta and Gozo.

What if I want to travel from Valletta to Buġibba or vice versa by sea?

You would first need to catch the ferry from Valletta to Sliema, which is run by a different operator, before catching the Gozo Highspeed to Buģibba. Or the other way around, of course.

What if I try and dodge the fare to Gozo instead of getting off at Buġibba?

It should come as no surprise that the operators have thought of that eventuality.

“The reservations system allows you to know how many depart from Sliema and how many should disembark in Buġibba. Furthermore, the tickets of the passengers remaining on board can be scanned,” a spokesperson said.