Ryanair’s boss wants the low-cost airline to carry eight million passengers to and from Malta within the next decade, insisting the island can handle more tourists if they are evenly spread out throughout the year, and if the infrastructure is improved.

Such a number would be almost twice the current number of Ryanair passengers on the Malta routes, but it would be a good thing for the economy, keeping hotels and tourist facilities operating through the year, Michael O’Leary told Times of Malta.

“Over the next 10 years, Ryanair will take delivery of over 300 new aircraft from Boeing. We’d like to see if we can base another five or seven of those aircraft here in Malta and grow our annual traffic in Malta from four million passengers today to maybe seven or eight million passengers by the early 2030s,” he said.

Despite the economic benefits, overtourism to Malta is starting to bite, putting pressure on infrastructure and prices. Malta expects a record tourism year in 2024. 

Ryanair and its subsidiary MaltaAir currently have seven aircraft based in Malta, boosting tourism numbers.  

“There is so much demand for tourism coming to Malta, particularly in the shoulder, off-peak periods. Malta is offering a great tourism product. The problem for decades has been access. But now we're creating year-round access, and that has created huge growth, particularly in winter, because tourists are looking for some winter sun in Malta and Cyprus. It’s terrific," O’Leary said.

Ryanair expects to carry 4.4 million passengers to and from Malta this year, up from 3.3 million last year – a record 24 per cent increase for its local operations.

Ryanair's CEO is hoping to double the number of passengers the airline carries on its Malta route, within a few years.

On Tuesday, the airline announced it was adding Rome Fiumicino, Katowice in Poland and Paris Beauvais to its winter schedule from Malta, starting this month. 

Extra flights are also being added to 19 existing routes from Malta, including Athens, Catania, Edinburgh and Zagreb, and the airline is considering Morocco as a new potential route.

‘Tourism has not reached saturation point’

O’Leary dismissed concerns that doubling passengers would exacerbate overpopulation and does not believe Malta has reached a tourist saturation point.

Malta suffers tourism stress in the peak summer months, he acknowledged, but Ryanair is increasing the number of tourists it carries during spring, autumn and winter. The airline is using Malta’s winter sun to keep more hotels and tourist facilities open and operating, he said. 

“I’m always nervous when people say that we’ll be saturated. I don’t think so but it clearly puts pressure – you need more infrastructure.”

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Tourism, he noted, accounted for a much higher percentage of GDP in Malta than it does in other countries and if Malta wanted to grow more jobs and have a wealthier economy, it must be able to provide a better infrastructure, more hospitals and schools.

‘Ryanair and KM Malta Airlines must co-exist’

O’Leary refuted the notion that Ryanair was a direct competitor to national flag carrier KM Malta Airlines, formerly Air Malta.

The national airline covers expensive destinations like Heathrow, Frankfurt and Paris's Charles de Gaulle, he said, whereas Ryanair largely operates to other airports.

“Over the last 15 years we showed we can create new routes to and from Malta and people can now fly directly to Malta from 69 different destinations in Europe, whereas with the old KM model, you had to go to Heathrow, Frankfurt or Charles de Gaulle to get to Malta,” he said. 

“That’s not the way to grow business in Malta. But I believe there’s room for both airlines – one serving the connecting hubs and the other delivering all the growth and the low fares.”

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

While the Irish entrepreneur had previously told Times of Malta that Ryanair is “probably the unofficial airline of Malta”, he would not go as far as to criticise the national airline.

Asked whether he believes the airline can survive without ever being privatised, he said: “That’s a matter for the Maltese government and not something I should be commenting on. KM is a distinguished airline with a proud history and Malta is better for having some competition between Ryanair, Malta Air and KM.

"We want to see KM survive and prosper but it’s challenging for them in an era when people are increasingly looking for low-fare air travel and nobody is willing to pay high fares. It’ll always be challenging in the future for KM, but we want to see them survive and whatever the Maltese government can do to keep KM alive and prosperous will be good for the island and for competition with Ryanair.”

O'Leary, who is known for making bold, often controversial, and provocative statements, said the airline cannot squeeze more seats on its planes, and will only do so when it has larger aircraft.

“We want to deliver passenger comfort but if we can get longer, bigger aircraft, we can carry more passengers per flight and we can reduce our cost and air fares, which is vital to our growth going forward,” he said.

Ryanair dominates the low-cost market and now accounts for around 15% to 20% of the total European aviation market.