The airline Air Malta is reducing frequencies on many routes in the 2022/23 winter flight schedule. Destinations in Germany are also affected. For example, Berlin is temporarily suspended and the future of the Düsseldorf route is entirely open. The Geneva route faces the same fate.

In general, the future of the state airline is open, because the government is pursuing plans to close it together with sister company Malta MedAir and to bring a cheaper successor to the market. Rumors are circulating in the Maltese Islands that the new carrier, which is said to be based on Malta MedAir assets, could go by the name of Air Valletta.

Less Gatwick - more Heathrow

The originally outlined plan that the “hard cut” could be made as early as the end of October 2022 is off the table, at least for the time being. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana recently said Air Malta's future should be settled by the end of this year. However, he left it open how this will look like. In any case, it is certain that things will not go on as before due to years of losses.

In the meantime, Air Malta has entered extensive reductions in the offer into the sales system. The number of weekly frequencies is being reduced on numerous routes and other routes are at least temporarily suspended. In the direction of Amsterdam, the number of weekly rotations is halved to four. Catania, located on neighboring Sicily, will be served 14 times a week instead of XNUMX.

While London-Gatwick will be reduced by one round to five weekly frequencies, the number of rounds to Heathrow will be increased from nine to 14. There is also an increase in the direction of Rome-Fiumicino: in the 2022/23 winter timetable, Air Malta will fly 12 times a week on this route. So far, nine rotations have been offered.

Geneva, Prague, Düsseldorf and Berlin will be dropped

Paris-Orly will be reduced from nine to four laps. Air Malta will no longer fly to Lyon five times a week, but only twice. The Madrid route will also be reduced by one rotation. In the future, this goal will only be headed for twice a week. Brussels, on the other hand, will be increased from six to seven rounds.

Düsseldorf will not be served at least in the 2022/23 winter flight schedule. It is currently completely open whether there will be a resumption in the 2022/23 summer flight schedule. The destination is currently not bookable for the warm season of 2023. The situation is similar with the Berlin flights, because sales for departure times after January 8, 2023 have been discontinued. Until then, it will fly twice a week. Air Malta did not want to comment on the future of the two German routes. The destinations Geneva and Prague have also been flown from the 2022/23 winter timetable. These currently share a fate comparable to the Germany routes.

Air Malta has also made reductions on the routes to Vienna-Schwechat and Milan-Linate. This is currently only the removal of individual flight frequencies in selected calendar weeks. The opposite is the case on the Zurich route, because this gets additional flights in individual weeks.