It cost the government close to €300,000 to fly home hundreds of students stranded in Malta with COVID-19 or who were in quarantine after close contact with positive cases, Times of Malta can reveal.  

Five flights took 579 students, all minors, back to Italy, Germany, France and Spain last month after English language schools were closed down due to a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.

A spokesman for the Malta Tourism Authority said the flights were organised mainly for humanitarian reasons so the young people with COVID could recover at home with the support of their families.

Three special flights were chartered to repatriate those students who had tested positive for the virus and another two were held for those confined to quarantine in a hotel or at their place of residence.

A home-made banner in a hotel where students quarantined last month.

“These flights took place so that these minors could be close to their loved ones during such a difficult time,” the spokesman said in reply to questions.

He said the repatriation flights were organised by the MTA in collaboration with local and foreign health authorities, the Maltese and European airports and through the involvement of diplomatic representations in Malta.

The first two flights were for students who had not tested positive.

They were flown out on July 19 and 20 to Italy, Germany, France and Spain. The flights were operated through Malta MedAir and the total cost was €112,658.

In the following days, students who had tested positive were flown to Spain and France aboard two medical aircraft operated by ASL Airlines, at a cost of €80,000.

The last medical flight was to Italy and needed a larger aircraft. It was operated by NEOS SpA and cost €100,000.

The MTA spokesman said no additional repatriation flights are considered necessary so none are being planned.

The government had ordered the closure of language schools on July 9 after hundreds of unvaccinated teenagers who were in Malta to study English tested positive for the coronavirus.

According to the health authorities, some 700 students contracted the virus while on the island.

English language schools and their federation had complained at the time that the decision was “unwarranted” and “disproportionate”.

Since then, new guidelines have been issued by the health authorities, who have urged English language schools to test their students for COVID-19 every two weeks throughout their stay in Malta. Just over half the registered schools have now reopened their doors for those students who are fully vaccinated.