With effect from January 27, 2021, the airline Air Malta will reduce the flight schedule to only 19 weekly rotations. Numerous routes, including Vienna, are temporarily suspended.

Air Malta itself speaks of a lifeline that will be maintained for the island nation. When choosing the eight destinations, freight and mail played a decisive role. The state airline wants to ensure that a certain minimum connectivity remains for the cargo and mail supply.

From Wednesday, Air Malta will only fly to Amsterdam, Brussels, Catania, Frankfurt, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rome-Fiumicino and Zurich from Luqa. All other destinations, including Vienna, will pause until at least the end of February 2021. However, the carrier points out that the minimum program could be extended depending on developments on the mainland.

The "emergency flight plan" at a glance:

Malta hopes to make travel easier for vaccinated people

The Republic of Malta currently has comparatively extremely low infection and death rates. The smallest member of the European Union has so far been spared a second or even third lockdown. The vaccinations against Covid-19 have already started and should be completed as soon as possible. Since only just over half a million people live in Malta, Gozo and Comino, one should be able to proceed quickly - in comparison with larger countries.

It is therefore not surprising that the government of Malta, together with Greece and Spain, is pushing for people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to be given easier travel or even to be exempted from the restrictions. At the moment, countries like Germany and France are biting granite with this demand. The issue was discussed at the EU heads of government summit and was postponed indefinitely.

In principle, Malta could grant entry relief on its own. However, vacationers have precious little of that if they expect a quarantine when they return to their home country. This has a massive negative effect on tourist demand. The last summer season was also very weak on the Maltese islands, because the main market of the United Kingdom has de facto collapsed.