The airline Malta MedAir, originally founded as a "savings unit" for Air Malta, is now entering the scheduled business on its own account. The fleet consists of an Airbus A320, which was previously used in a wet lease for Air Malta.

The aviation strategy of the Republic of Malta is a bit confused. Air Malta is fully state-owned before a second "national carrier" was founded with Malta MedAir, in order to be able to put pressure on the pilots, especially with regard to wages. The last-mentioned airline has so far not flown for its own account, but almost exclusively in a wet lease for Air Malta. Former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi is considered the mastermind of this strategy and planned to use Malta MedAir as the basis for long-haul flights that were to be carried out with the Airbus A321XLR. With the politician's not entirely voluntary resignation, this project has at least temporarily fallen asleep. What remains is Malta MedAir, whose services are no longer required by the also state-owned Air Malta.

Incidentally, Malta Air is also majority owned by the Republic of Malta. This carrier, too, was launched with significant political support from Konrad Mizzi and is de facto controlled by minority shareholder Ryanair. Airplanes in Malta Air's own livery do not yet exist, but according to Michael O'Leary they should follow with the addition of Boeing 737-Max-200s. By the way, Ryanair is building with Lauda Europe Ltd. a second Maltese carrier in the group of companies.

On Saturday, Malta MedAir operated the first scheduled flight under the two-letter code MM on its own account. This led from Luqa to Warsaw and back. Additional destinations are to be added in the next few weeks. According to Economics Minister Silvio Schmbri, the carrier will in future offer numerous European destinations on its own account. Additional staff are to be employed for this purpose. The expansion of the fleet is also being considered.

In the previous year, the then Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi threatened unequivocally that if a tariff dispute with the Air Malta pilots was not resolved, then Malta MedAir would take over the role of Air Malta. Incidentally, around 70 pilots were dismantled there in the course of the Corona crisis. They returned their uniforms to the Air Malta headquarters in Luqa, packed in garbage bags with media coverage.