LA VALLETTA (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The new national Maltese airline KM Malta Airlines has been granted a licence to fly and operate its service next year. The license was issued from Malta’s Civil Aviation Directorate. The new airline, which will take over from the existing national carrier Air Malta, will fly its inaugural flight on March 31. The airline said, “The vision, ambition and mandate of KM Malta Airlines is to protect and enhance the connectivity of the Maltese Islands to Europe and beyond, to support the Islands’ continued economic development and to grow into a successful and sustainable airline”. It added, “KM Malta Airlines will adopt a key European destination focus, linking Malta with the main capital cities in western Europe, with the primary European airport hubs, and connecting with partner airlines”. The summer schedule will operate from March 31 to October 26. In summer, the new airline intends to serve 17 airports across 15 cities, operating 8,546 flights and offering 1,430,000 seats. It will perform 284 weekly flights, reaching an average aircraft utilisation of 12 hours eight minutes per unit day. The summer schedule includes: 82 weekly flights between Malta and Italy, 48 weekly flights between Malta and France, 44 weekly flights between Malta and the United Kingdom and 40 weekly flights between Malta and Germany. The booking system will be open next Monday. The airline said that, according to plan, it has also launched its recruitment programme and will be seeking to recruit some 375 employees with the first call being made for captains and first officers. It will operate a young single-type aircraft fleet of eight Airbus 320NEOs, in a two-class configuration with a flexible business class cabin averaging 168 total saleable seats with up to 36 business class seats.

Foto: Agenzia Fotogramma

Source: medNews