Malta puts hopes on higher load factors and profitable routes for successor carrier
Malta’s government believes an eight-strong fleet together with a right-sized network and staff levels will enable its planned successor carrier to Air Malta to be profitable. Maltese prime minister Robert Abela on 2 October detailed plans to establish a successor carrier to Air Malta, taking over from the national airline from the end of March next year. That followed talks with European Commission regulators, who had baulked at plans for further a capital increase in the struggling carrier. ”What we are doing differently today is that we are doing one process that we started seriously with the Commission from beginning to end, and today we are giving certainty and stability in the long run,” Abela told the Maltese Parliament on 2 October. He says that, significantly, it has secured agreement for the airline to operate eight aircraft, in line with Air Malta’s existing fleet, and a network plan that would mean passenger numbers of the successor carrier would match current levels despite fewer routes. While similar successor carriers in Europe, such as ITA Airways replacing Alitalia in Italy in 2021, required trimming operations substantially to gain regulatory approval, Abela says Malta insisted that retaining a fleet of eight aircraft was the right size for the carrier. ”We know this from the way it has behaved in recent months, from the way the company has behaved when it had a fleet of ten, nine and eight,” he says. ”We also know the advice the technical experts gave us that the right size of this company is eight planes. We have arrived with the Commission to work with a fleet of eight planes.” The carrier will cut its network to 17 routes. Cirium data shows Air Malta currently operates 23 routes and has previously flown more than 40. ”We wanted to keep flying to the destinations that are the most crucial. That’s how it will be done in the schedule structured according to expert advice in the aviation sector, a schedule whose main feature will be that it increases the seat load factor from what was traditionally around 75%,” he says, noting this has already increased for Air Malta.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-10-05/unaligned/malta-puts-hopes-on-higher-load-factors-and-profitable-routes-for-successor-carrier
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Malta puts hopes on higher load factors and profitable routes for successor carrier
Malta’s government believes an eight-strong fleet together with a right-sized network and staff levels will enable its planned successor carrier to Air Malta to be profitable. Maltese prime minister Robert Abela on 2 October detailed plans to establish a successor carrier to Air Malta, taking over from the national airline from the end of March next year. That followed talks with European Commission regulators, who had baulked at plans for further a capital increase in the struggling carrier. ”What we are doing differently today is that we are doing one process that we started seriously with the Commission from beginning to end, and today we are giving certainty and stability in the long run,” Abela told the Maltese Parliament on 2 October. He says that, significantly, it has secured agreement for the airline to operate eight aircraft, in line with Air Malta’s existing fleet, and a network plan that would mean passenger numbers of the successor carrier would match current levels despite fewer routes. While similar successor carriers in Europe, such as ITA Airways replacing Alitalia in Italy in 2021, required trimming operations substantially to gain regulatory approval, Abela says Malta insisted that retaining a fleet of eight aircraft was the right size for the carrier. ”We know this from the way it has behaved in recent months, from the way the company has behaved when it had a fleet of ten, nine and eight,” he says. ”We also know the advice the technical experts gave us that the right size of this company is eight planes. We have arrived with the Commission to work with a fleet of eight planes.” The carrier will cut its network to 17 routes. Cirium data shows Air Malta currently operates 23 routes and has previously flown more than 40. ”We wanted to keep flying to the destinations that are the most crucial. That’s how it will be done in the schedule structured according to expert advice in the aviation sector, a schedule whose main feature will be that it increases the seat load factor from what was traditionally around 75%,” he says, noting this has already increased for Air Malta.<br/>
