Cruise traffic up 30% this year

Valletta, 21/08/07 - In July 32 cruise liners, with 56,589 passengers, berthed in Grand Harbour. In the first seven months of the year, meanwhile, 218,608 liner passengers arrived in Malta - 29.74 per cent more than in 2006.

Friday continued to be the busiest day of the week with four vessels calling on two Fridays and three vessels calling on the other two Fridays, Valetta Waterfront operators VISET report. The busiest day in terms of passenger movements was 20 July with 7,547 passengers.

Royal Caribbean's 312 metre Voyager of the Seas made its first call at the port of Valletta on 18 July, carrying a 90 per cent passenger capacity of 3,400 passengers. The Voyager of the Seas is calling at Valletta every Wednesday until the end of August.

VISET, meanwhile, expects 41 cruise calls this month by 16 different ships. MV Costa Concordia, MSC Sinfonia and MV Sky Wonder continue embarking and disembarking passengers every Friday.

Vatican to launch pilgrim flights

Rome, 21/08/07 - The Vatican is starting a new charter service that will fly pilgrims to global holy sites, Airline Travel News reports. The first route will be from Rome to Lourdes on 27 August

Some of the world's top spiritual destinations are also planned, including the shrine of Fatima in Portugal, the shrine of the Madonna of Guadalupe in Mexico and Santiago di Compostella in Spain.

"The spirit of this new initiative is to meet the growing demand by pilgrims to visit the most important sites for the faith". Father Cesare Atuire at the Vatican pilgrimage office, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, told Italian daily La Repubblica.

The Vatican has struck a deal with Italian charter airline Mistral Air, which is controlled by the Italian post office. Cabin crew "specialised in the voyages of a sacred nature" will man the aircraft.

The interiors will be decorated with sacred inscriptions such as seat covers with the words: "I search for your face, Lord”, written on them.

The inaugural flight will include Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the former head of the Italian Bishops Conference, La Repubblica said.

Canonisation boosts outbound travel

Valletta, 21/08/07 - Not surprisingly, June saw a dramatic increase in travel by Malta residents. With the canonization of Gorg Preca on 3 June at the Vatican, an additional 4,306 people travelled to Italy compared to June 2006.

In June 30,700 Malta residents travelled abroad, up from 22,211 the previous year - an increase of 38.2 per cent, the National Statistics Office reports. Travel to Italy went up from 8,978 in June 2006 to 13,284 this June, an increase of 48 per cent.

In the first half of the year, meanwhile, 117,389 residents travelled abroad, an increase of 11.4 per cent over the same period last year.

During this period, males exceeded female travellers; the former accounting for 60.9 per cent of the total.

The largest proportion of travellers - 46.9 per cent - were aged between 25 and 44, followed by those in the 45 to 64 age bracket, accounting for 38.7 per cent of the total.

Ryanair introduces Valencia/Malta frequency, Bari route off

Mosta, 09/08/07 - Ryanair is to operate a new route from Valencia, Spain, to Malta from 30 October. The route will be flown three times a week - on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays - when the Irish low cost carrier opens a base at Valencia airport. As an introductory offer, one-way fares are priced at €10.

Announcing the new route, Ryanair's sales and marketing manager for southern Europe, Bridget Dowling said: "We began operations in Malta last October and by this October we will have seven routes to and from the island, carrying 330,000 passengers per annum and creating 330 jobs locally.

"The new flight from Valencia will carry 40,000 passengers per annum and we are confident that like Ryanair's six other routes, it will be very successful".

By year's end Ryanair will be operating to Malta from Dublin, London Luton, Pisa, Stockholm and Bremen. And from Spain it will have frequencies from two points - Valencia and Girona, also starting on 30 October and using B737-800 aircraft.

Meantime, contrary to the announcement made at the end of May by Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech - that Ryanair was planning to fly three times a week from Bari, Italy, to Malta - an airline spokesman told Island Travel Trader Online they have no plans to do so yet (see Ryanair to operate to Malta from Bari and Stockholm).

The carrier operates from bases dotted around Europe, and as it does not have one in Bari a service to Malta is unlikely.

However, as Ryanair is increasing frequencies from Milan to Bari, it may consider what is known as a 'W' route - from Milan to Malta via Bari.

Amadeus and Sabre Holdings to form payments joint venture

Madrid, 09/08/07 - Sabre Holdings and Amadeus have filed with the European Commission for antitrust approval to create a joint venture that will provide secure, automated payment processing, clearing and reconciliation solutions to the global travel industry.

The intent of the joint venture is to establish an industry standard solution to improve and better meet the requirements of the travel industry with payment efficiencies, increased automation, and improved interoperability. The joint venture plans to focus on the non-air segments of the industry such as hotels, cruise, tour, car and rail. The joint venture will integrate the existing financial instruments already used by the travel industry into a best-in-class multi-channel, multi-GDS platform, which will allow travel industry players to effectively manage all aspects of their payment needs in a flexible, easy-to-use solution.