Air Malta drives Malta's tourism growth

by a special correspondent

Air Malta continues to be the driving force behind the increases in tourism arrivals this year, contributing 57 per cent of the 77,000 additional passengers who have flown to Malta in the first six months of 2008.

The estimates released recently by the National Statistics Office show that the number of tourists for the first half of the year rose by 15% per cent to 577,313 over the same period last year. More than half, specifically 57 per cent, of this increase was directly contributed by Air Malta, which also transported 15 per cent more passengers than the previous year during the first two quarters of this year.

In June Air Malta continued to register the same double-digit growth recorded over the last eight months. Traffic for that month rose by 13 per cent (17 per cent if one excludes the additional traffic registered last year because of to the canonisation of Malta's first home grown saint - Dun Gorg Preca).

Commenting on these figures, chief officer commercial, Brock Friesen said: "We are building on the positive results registered last winter, when, for the first time in its history, Air Malta transported over half a million passengers. In the first half of the year the Maltese airline has yet again consolidated its position as the preferred airline amongst visitors from all European countries of origin.

"Figures released by the Association of European Airlines also confirm that Air Malta was one of the few European airlines that registered double digit growth from January till June this year. The industry figures confirm that in the first six months of the year Air Malta transported 14.6 per cent more passengers".

Friesen attributed these figures to the continuous refinement of pricing policies, aggressive international advertising and successful direct selling on the airline's portal www.airmalta.com.

"Through our enhanced distribution tools, investments in revenue management systems and reporting tools, new setups of e-business and international call centre and a re-launched web portal and booking engine we are generating additional inbound traffic. Moreover, the network is now focussed on frequent services to the richest markets, rather than once weekly services to regional points.

"The Maltese tourism industry is strongly benefiting from Air Malta's traffic growth. The results and outlook for July and August are also quite positive, although double-digit growth figures are not projected. This is in line with the airline's projected figures for summer, as the islands perform very well and both the airline and hotel accommodation figures are very high during peak months", added Friesen.

Apart from the point-to-point traffic increases Air Malta is also actively pursuing other off-line markets. The existing code-share agreements with Lufthansa, Air One and Turkish Airlines will be further consolidated with other airline partners in the next few months whereby Air Malta will continue to expand its network.

Today, both Maltese travellers and tourists have daily connectivity via European hubs to more than 200 destinations worldwide. Air Malta has also implemented over 20 interline e-ticketing agreements allowing the Maltese passenger seamless travel with through check-in facilities.

"In July we introduced web check-in whereby customers can check-in and select their seats from their home or office as early as 23 hours before their Air Malta flight. The new facility is proving to be very popular and we have seen a steady increase in passengers benefiting from this service. Through our new revamped easy-to-use travel portal Air Malta has presented its customers with a simple and transparent method without resorting to hidden charges.

"Our web portal and internet booking engine are generating exceptional results. We are now selling well over 20 per cent of our airline seats through our booking engine. Also the new online services launched together with Expedia such as hotel accommodation in Malta and abroad, booking and reservations for major attractions, shows and events, museum passes, theatre and football tickets, city tours and a host of activities happening worldwide, have become popular with our online customers. We have also launched our online travel insurance cover through the Mondial Assistance Group. We are working to offer a one-stop-shop of travel related products on our portal www.airmalta.com", concluded Friesen.