Ryanair: Fly again from 10 Euro

Low-cost airline Ryanair is threatening to decrease flight routes to and from Malta from the coming winter if the Government refuses to decrease the airport costs.

Eighteen months after landing in Malta, boosting tourist numbers in 2007, Ryanair is asking for more subsidies or else slow down, fully aware that government is now almost bound to appease the low-cost airlines or else lose out on the tourism industry.
In a press conference on Friday morning, Ryanair dropped the bombshell: “Despite positive results in Malta (in 2007), further growth or the establishment of a base is unrealistic in the absence of lower airport costs, particularly in a market environment where continuing record oil prices threaten to make some existing routes unviable.”

“Malta has huge potential to grow its tourism product, however this requires vision from the Maltese Government to lower airport costs and prioritise growth, choice and competition by opening up the island to the low fare revolution which consumers in other European countries have enjoyed,” said Bridget Dowling, Sales and Marketing Manager at Ryanair

Ryanair announced that direct flights to Malta since the low-cost airline’s arrival in September 2006 produced 350,000 passengers travelling to and from Malta.

“We have been instrumental in helping Malta achieve the positive tourism results in 6 years”, Ms Dowling said. “We provided a badly needed tourism boost to the island as well as bringing more choice and lower fares for Maltese consumers.”

There is also an increase concerning Maltese people who travelling out of the country. On the other hand Malta is more expensive than Italy or Spain so that people may travel less to Malta in coming years.
Meanwhile, the national airline Air Malta said on Friday that it registered a very strong increase in the winter period covering November to March 2008.

The national airline has been undergoing a severe restructuring process to make its product competitive with the low-cost airlines which were introduced in the last couple of years. The increases came as an effect to the diversification which the national carrier had to go through moving from the stagnant tour operator market to more aggressive marketing techniques reaching out to the ‘individual traveller.’

Air Malta’s Chief Officer Commercial Dr Brock Friesen gave an overview of the passenger traffic results registered by Air Malta this winter. He said that Air Malta carried 510,000 passengers on flights originating from its Malta base - an increase of 60,000 passengers (+15%) over last winter. Air Malta scheduled traffic rose 11% while charter traffic was up 21%.

“The efforts of Air Malta workers are paying off and hopefully they will get their much warranted reward. They have done a tremendous job in keeping Air Malta’s flag high in the despite the fierce competition by low-cost carriers,” said a workers’ representative of the company.

A senior figure in the airlines industry told maltastar.com on Friday afternoon: “The management by crisis decision to introduce low-cost carriers in 2006 was taken in a bid to try and save government’s face from slumping tourism figures. We knew all the way that the country would become dependent of low-cost airlines overnight and we were predicting that when this happens, such airlines would simply hold the government at ransom and ask for more. Low-cost airlines were badly needed, true, but so was a proper plan which would have made sure the country does not end up with its back against the wall when faced with situation where they (low-cost carriers) would want their way or the highway. It’s up to government to get us out of the conundrum.”

(c) Copyright 2006 Consultancy & Research Limited