Record October for Air Malta
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Air Malta has reported traffic growth in October on its scheduled services of +4.4% over October 2008. Considering that October 2008 was also a record traffic month, and 2009 has seen the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of 1929, these figures hint that the airline’s strategy is bearing fruit and is managing to minimise the effects of the international financial crisis.
“Air Malta is delighted with this achievement”, said Dr Brock Friesen, Chief Officer Commercial of Air Malta. “This is certainly a more positive October than reported by other carriers. Air Malta’s relatively positive performance this year was confirmed today in the latest figures published by the Association of European Airlines (AEA) for January – September 2009. These figures show that during this period Air Malta saw a decrease of 3.9% in passengers compared to the average 7.4% decrease in cross-border Europe traffic registered by the 33 European Airlines members of the Association,” added Dr Friesen.
“These figures also confirm that Air Malta has the potential to increase tourism arrivals whilst competing with major European airlines,” highlighted Dr Friesen.
He added, “The growth in Air Malta passengers does not signal that we are out of the tourism recession or that Air Malta’s revenue is also up. Indeed, average fares are lower as Air Malta has priced aggressively especially in France and Germany with a resulting October traffic growth of +15% and +14% respectively in these markets. UK figures were hurt by the declining value of the Sterling, however despite this Air Malta still managed to attract 2% more passengers from the UK in October.”
The figures released by the AEA show that this year (January - September) European airlines reduced capacity by 4.3%. Contrastingly, in the same period, Air Malta added capacity by 5%.
“The decision to operate with an additional aircraft and thus increase capacity paid dividends,” added Dr Friesen. “This increased number of seats available to the market reflects Air Malta’s commitment to Malta. Unlike subsidized low cost carriers, which cut capacity during economic difficulty, the Maltese airline strategy was built on putting additional capacity into promising markets. This year in fact we increased capacity on Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy as well as to Central and Eastern Europe. Apart from increased frequencies, this summer Air Malta also started new services to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, Stuttgart and Verona.”
In Italy alone, Air Malta has operated no less then seven routes; Milan, Rome, Catania, Reggio Calabria, Bologna, Palermo and Verona. The Italian market maintained last year’s figures despite the international financial situation and slowdown. The airline believes that this market has strong potential for growth. Air Malta is currently finalising it plans so that next year it will be adding one or two additional northern Italian routes during next summer.
“This year Air Malta is coordinating an integrated marketing approach whereby its internet booking engine, revenue management, and targeted advertising are working in synch to deliver better than average results. The advertising strategy to focus on short break holidays is paying off as people, especially in difficult economic situations, choose to take shorter holidays a couple of times every year,” concluded Dr Friesen.
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