Clickair to operate twice weekly to Malta

Mosta, 28/03/07 - Spanish low cost carrier clickair will be operating twice-weekly frequencies from Barcelona to Malta from 7 June.

The services will be operated from Barcelona's El Prat airport on Thursdays and Mondays using 180-seat Airbus A320s.

Clickair announced its intention to fly to Malta on 20 February; at the time it said it would only be operating one flight a week. In early March, however, Island Travel Trader Online learned that clickair had changed its mind and would not be servicing Malta.

A delegation from Malta International Airport and the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) travelled to Barcelona for talks with the airline a week ago and returned with a new deal whereby clickair will start flying here in June on a year-round basis.

"We are now finalising the agreement with clickair", MTA chairman Sam Mifsud told Island Travel Trader Online. The new deal is expected to be officially announced sometime next week.

Clickair is a new company registered in 2006. Its founding partners - each with a 20 per cent stake - are Cobra, a service company belonging to Grupo ACS, Iberia, Iberostar tour operators, Nefinsa and the venture capital fund Quercus Equity (Grupo Agrolimen). Clickair's head office and its central base of operations is El Prat airport, located in Barcelona.

Germanwings starts summer schedule to Malta, focuses on travel agents

Luqa, 28/03/07 - Germanwings, Germany's premier low-cost airline, started operations to Malta yesterday from Cologne and Stuttgart, with two flights a week from each airport. The service, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, will be operated until the end of October.

The airline sells seats exclusively online, through its website at www.germanwings.com.

Meantime, Germanwings is concentrating more closely on two target groups. The low cost carrier is promoting travel agents as a sales channel and is offering business travellers even more flexibility and convenience. With the introduction of a new freely-bookable 'flex plus' tariff at a fixed price of €169, the airline will in future be offering all customers full flexibility, charge-free re-booking of their flight, flight cancellation and twice the number of Boomerang points - its loyalty scheme. "The new tariff offers the greatest possible freedom at a low-cost price", says Thomas Winkelmann, spokesman for the board of Germanwings.

In future, travel agents will be able to expect more service from Germanwings, with a separate portal for travel agents (www.germanwings.com/reisebuero). Group enquiries can be submitted directly via the portal to which Germanwings will answer within two working days. The new travel agents channel also offers agents important and useful information at their fingertips; a newsletter specially designed for travel agents with attractive prize giveaways and regularly discounted flight offers for travel agent employees.

Ryanair overprices Malta hotel rates, charges £900 a night

Mosta, 27/03/07 - At £911.29 a night, the three star New Alexandra Palace Hotel in St Julian's is, without doubt, Malta's most expensive hotel. If one books through Ryanair's website, that is.

On Friday, 23 March, the price for the night of 7 April was quoted as £911.29 for two adults at the New Alexandra Palace on half-board basis. A second night, Easter Sunday, was quoted at the more reasonable £50.55. Of course, there was an additional £44.47 taxes and service fees to add per night. Grand total for two nights was £1,050.78 or Lm667.45. Ryanair also requires that full payment is made when making a hotel reservation.

Scanning Ryanair.com today for accommodation in Malta on 7 and 8 April one is offered, for instance, £190 a night on an all-inclusive basis at the five star Fortina Spa Resort. A room at the four star Riviera Resort and Spa, on a B&B basis was £75 a night, £27 at the three star Sunflower and £183 at the four star San Antonio Hotel and Spa.

At the New Alexandra Palace, meantime, the price listed is £729.58 for 7 April, plummeting to £34.16 on 8 April. And taxes have dropped to £35.30 per night.

However, on phoning the hotel, Island Travel Trader Online was told the property was fully booked on 7 April, but a double room was available for Sunday, 8 April. Price tag: Lm20 (£31.49), inclusive of breakfast.

The New Alexandra Palace's price on Ryanair's site is claimed to be an "E-Special Rate". These, claims the Irish low cost carrier, are rates "negotiated" by its "dedicated team" at "savings up to 50 per cent off regular rates...you'll always find a great hotel at a great price".

Revamped Suncrest reopens

Qawra, 27/03/07 - The Suncrest Hotel reopened on 21 March after an "ambitious" 11 weeks refurbishment.

The project, aimed at providing an "innovative and quality-conscious service", consisted mainly of the upgrading of the technical plant, the guest rooms and the public areas.

The four star property's conference facilities were also upgraded and now include parquet flooring as well as new audio and visual system. Restaurants, kitchens and service areas were also revamped (see Suncrest closed for refurbishment).

The two months closure was also used for a restructuring and reorganisational drive that also saw the recruitment of new staff at all levels.

Whilst congratulating all the contractors and employees for completing the works on time, hotel general manager, Philippe Lonfat says the refurbishment has strengthened the Suncrest as a year-round hotel, attracting out-of-season trade - especially in the conference and incentive business. "With this kind of upgrading there is no reason why we should not be able to target top end events too ", he says.

Lonfat is also satisfied over the level of bookings for the coming weeks and emphasised that the launch of the Suncrest's new website - www.suncresthotel.com - is definitely helping in increasing bookings from the travel industry as well as from individual travellers.

Cruise traffic down 61% in 2007

Valletta, 22/03/07 - The first two months of 2007 have not proved exceptionally good for the cruising sector. Cruise passenger traffic was 61.2 per cent down to 4,438 from 11,439 last year.

In January, cruise passenger traffic to Malta accounted for 1,398 persons, a drop of 4,153 passengers over the same month in 2006, the National Statistics Office reports (NSO).

In February, meantime, the NSO reports a drop of 2,848 in cruise excursionists - from 5,888 last year to 3,040 last month.

In the first two months of the year there were no cruise embarkations from Malta; put another way, none went on a cruise that originated in Malta in January or February.

Only one cruise liner called in Malta in January, compared to four 12 months before. And in February only four liners called at the Grand Harbour; in February 2006 there were 10.

Outbound traffic up 18% in January

Valletta, 18/03/07 - In January 14,372 Malta residents traveled abroad, an increase of 18.2 per cent over the same month in 2006. Of these, 11,954 travelled to European Union destinations - the most popular being the United Kingdom and Italy, reports the National Statistics Office.

KM takes delivery of 11th Airbus

Luqa, 15/03/07 - Air Malta received its 11th, factory-fresh aircraft on 6 March, but chose to announce it 11 days later. The aircraft, an Airbus A320 was named Nadur. Another new A320, dubbed Tarxien, will be joining Air Malta's fleet by the end of the month.

By then the airline's fleet will consist of 12 state-of-the-art Airbus machines from the A319 and A320 families. The average age of Air Malta's aircraft fleet will go down to 2.7 years, considered to be one of the youngest in Europe and the world.

The new fleet has brought substantial advantages and cost savings from equipment commonality, particularly on maintenance and flight crew deployment. All the new aircraft are equipped with an in-flight entertainment system. Other cabin features include a completely new interior design, wider seat pitch, larger overhead stowage bins and a coat compartment in the Club Class section. The aircraft incorporate the latest technology in avionics, communications and 'real-time' maintenance monitoring. The latest safety features such as traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) and other security features were also installed.

Today Air Malta's fleet includes six Airbus A320s, five A319s and two Boeing B-737-300s.

UFTAA and IATA extend joint training programme

Monte Carlo, 15/03/07 - The United Federation of Travel Agents' Associations (UFTAA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) extended their joint training agreement until the end of 2007. The agreement was originally concluded and signed in 1999.

According to this new accord IATA and UFTAA will keep offering training programmes to the travel trade.

In the meantime, the two global associations have agreed to discuss a new, long-term development of training programmes that will take them beyond the timeframe of the current deal. UFTAA, however, has reserved the right to consider other training options and solutions.

"Some of the issues that we are discussing with IATA", explains UFTAA chairman Joe Borg Olivier, "include marketing, subject-matter expertise, product developments, instructor accreditation and ATCs - accredited training centres, among other topics. These are in addition to the promotion of existing training programmes, the most important of which is the 'Foundation' course that leads to travel agency accreditation in some countries".

UFTAA and IATA have agreed to finalise ongoing negotiations by the end of September. There will be no disruption in training flows. Negotiation teams from both associations plan to meet in Paris in April for further discussions.