Malta: Three new budget airlines from March
6 January 2008Three new low-cost airlines will be operating to Malta from March, amid ambitious targets of a four to five per cent increase in arrivals over a record 2007.
The news comes days after British Airways and Easyjet announced they will be operating between Malta and London from March, signalling a ten per cent increase in seat capacity on the all-important UK route.
“‘It’s not too soon to say we’re going to try and make 2008 an even better year,”‘ Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech told The Sunday Times.
Spanish budget airline Vueling will be servicing the Madrid to Malta route three times a week; Italian airline Volare four times weekly; and airline Norwegian.no will be flying from Malta to Oslo three times a week.
British Airways will operate a daily service to London Gatwick from March 30. GB Airways, which operated British Airways flights to Malta, has been sold to giant low-cost carrier Easyjet, which is also starting a 10-flights-a-week service to Malta from its base in Gatwick.
Though it is a budget airline, the minister confirmed that no subsidies will be provided to Easyjet since it has assumed the slots previously operated by GB Airways.
source: TimesOfMalta.com
