Originally Posted by
CabinCrewe
I thought they’d done something like that already. Not sure how many incarnations of Malta, Air Malta, Malta Air can be used but suspect general public won’t give a hoot.
Cheaper leases and cheaper staff. If Ryanair can do it why not?
Had nostalgic memories of little KM 737-200s at most UK airports doing summer charters.
Indeed,
KM flew from many UK airports with charter 737-200's in the main for Belleair Holidays who were partially owned by Air Malta KM until 2012, and was a trading name of the Holiday Malta Company Limited. Belleair has over 50 years of experience specialising in package holidays to Malta & Gozo and began using Air Malta KM 737 charter flights from 1981 flying out of many UK departure points.
KM Air Malta is/was the Govt owned once proud National Airline of the island and of course has nothing to do with recent incarnations by
Ryanair -
Malta Air and now
Lauda Europe are both now based in Malta, however Malta Air was founded in 2019
through an agreement between the Maltese Government and Ryanair.
The PM was then quoted - Malta Air will fly to 60 destinations
but will not clash with Air Malta...
Today -
The latest news article states - The Maltese government has established advanced plans to dissolve Air Malta later this year and transfer its few remaining profitable assets to a new airline in October, similar to what has already been done in Italy with Alitalia -
All indications from Brussels point towards a failure in ongoing state aid negotiations by the Government to obtain a green light for a new €290 million rescue package for Air Malta, thus a Plan B had been secretly drawn up to be implemented.
All 600 Air Malta staff including Pilots, Cabin Crew, and ground handling staff who are still on the books at the date of dissolution will be given redundancy notices with some of them given the opportunity to apply for a new job with the new airline. The plan will include the drawing up of new contracts based on current market conditions, for all those who will be hired by the new government-owned airline - New C
ontracts will see most of the current benefits enjoyed by Air Malta employees slashed.
The new contracts will be based on the same conditions as those of low-cost airlines.
Ouch - as usual
Yet not all current routes will be served by Air Malta’s replacement
new airline, as in order to get EU approval, the new airline will need to show that it is a completely separate economic operator and not a successor of Air Malta. The Government has not yet decided whether to use, as a vehicle for this transition,
Malta MedAir – an airline set up by disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi in 2018 to compete with Air Malta –
or to form a completely new entity....
Malta MedAir is another fully-owned Government company with an AOC that currently has an Airbus A320 on its books (and another leased out) and holds the lucrative Gatwick and Heathrow slots it bought from Air Malta in a creative accounting exercise to make the national airline KM look profitable.
Malta MedAir states on its webpage -
We have the 4 times daily, take-off and landing rights at the Heathrow and Gatwick airports to Malta, and is pursuing plans to continue to grow its business and reach further afield in the years to come.
Hmmm - That could all get very messy -
The National carrier of Malta, Air Malta (KM) began service in 1974 with leased Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720Bs on the prime route to London after many years code sharing/pooling from 1951 with BEA as
Malta Airlines.
In 1951 Malta Airlines had absorbed the operations of Air Malta Ltd (1947) and continued operating through a pooling agreement with BEA until 1973.
BEA's aircraft would have Maltese Cross red square stickers placed over the BEA ones.
In the early 1970s, the Maltese Government appointed Albert Mizzi as chairman of the airline and made a call for an international airline partner to help set up a new national airline.
The name chosen for the new airline was similar to that of its forerunner, Air Malta Co Ltd, and was established on 31 March 1973.
BEA was to continue its Malta Airlines operations, this time for Air Malta, until Air Malta's first flight on 1 April 1974.
Both Malta Airlines and Malta Aviation Services were taken over by the Government and the private owners were given a shareholding in the new Air Malta Co.Ltd.
Air Malta was set up by a Resolution of Malta’s House of Representatives on March 21, 1973 and was registered as a limited liability company on March 30, 1973.
The previous day, the Prime Minister, Dom Mintoff, as Minister for Civil Aviation, had granted the company an Air Service Licence valid for ten years with effect from April 1, 1973.
The licence was granted subject to the condition that the substantial ownership and effective control of the airline would, at all times, be held and exercised by the Government of Malta and/or by citizens of Malta and/or by companies incorporated under the laws of Malta and controlled by citizens of Malta.
Air Malta was formed with the assistance of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The share capital was authorised – 51% by Air Malta and 20% by PIA (until 1980). The rest, 29% of the capital share, was initially unsubscribed. On January 24, 1975 Malta Airlines took 5%, while Malta Aviation Services Ltd. took up 1% of the unsubscribed shareholding in Air Malta.
On August 11, 1975, the Government raised the shareholding capital with the Government subscribing 76.4% to Air Malta.
Air Malta started flying operations with two wet-leased Boeing 720Bs (AP-AMG, AP-AMJ) from PIA on April 1st, 1974, with scheduled services to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Rome, Frankfurt, Paris and Tripoli.
By 1979, Air Malta owned five aircraft: the two B720Bs which were wet-leased from PIA – purchased on March 31, 1979 (re-registered as 9H-AAM, 9H-AAN) – and a further three B720Bs purchased from Western Airlines (9H-AAK, 9H-AAL, 9H-AAO)
It was standard in the 1970s for Air Malta to require seasonal extra summer capacity or to lease in extra equipment when the 720s were in for maintenance.
The equipment chosen was diverse, from a pair of Convair 880s and two 720-047Bs were leased at different times from the Icelandic airline Eagle Air Arnasflug,
and a 720-051B was leased from Conair. Two 707-123B's were leased from TransAsian and Monarch. A 707-321 G-AZTG was leased from Dan Air.
The CV-880s wore an anonymous Cathay Pacific scheme but several of the others wore closer to the full Air Malta scheme.
A World Airways 727-173C N692WA leased in 1976 wore full KM colours although her lease was only for 6 months.
The first of three 737-200ADV were leased from Transavia in 1981.
On March 30, 1982 Air Malta ordered her first brand new aircraft, with signing of a purchase agreement with Boeing Company for three Boeing B737-200 Advanced. With the delivery of the B737-200s in March 1983 (9H-ABA, 9H-ABB, 9H-ABC) – coinciding with the airline’s tenth anniversary celebrations – Air Malta unveiled a new aircraft livery.
In August 1986, Air Malta purchased two more B737-200ADVs which were delivered in July 1987 (9H-ABE, 9H-ABF) and another, the sixth which was delivered on March 18, 1988
(9H-ABG).
1986 seems to be rather late to be leasing in a TAP passenger 707-320C CS-TBU and it is curious as to why Air Malta didn't look to source something more modern.
I assume the lease rates for newer types was simply too high or none were available, and this 707 served Air Malta for 2 years.
The 1990s brought about a new corporate image for Air Malta, when it had introduced a third aircraft colour scheme in December 1989.
In March 1989 KM went on to order two A320-200, delivered in 1992.
The following month Air Malta ordered three new Boeing B737-300 aircraft, delivered in 1993.
Air Malta also leased the Lockheed Tristar back in 1997 when TBG (Thorne Brown Group) Airways (Aer Turas) Tristars EI-TBG and EI-CNN were leased.
In July 2002, Air Malta concluded a multi-million dollar agreement which involved ILFC, Airbus and CFM International for the renewal of its fleet.
The deal involved the sale and lease back from ILFC of its own A320-200s and the B737-300s and the dry lease of twelve new aircraft from the Airbus A320 family, powered by CFM engines, for a term of twelve years each with an option to buy at the termination of the lease.
The first of these new leased aircraft, an A320 (9H-AEF), was delivered on October 31, 2003 and the last, an A320 (9H-AEQ), was delivered on March 22, 2007.
Air Malta now benefits from Malta’s EU membership by operating intra-European flights between Catania and London’s Gatwick airport.
The airline sets up bases in the UK and starts a charter flight programme from the UK to a number of holiday destinations in Europe.
In 2012 Air Malta underwent another rebranding process. The first plane to show off the new colours of Malta was the A320 (9H-AEN) at the Malta International Airshow 2012.
On Wednesday 16 April 2014 Air Malta surprised the islanders with another freshly-painted aircraft to kick-start its 40th anniversary celebrations.
Air Malta registered aircraft 9H-AEI operated flight KM 40, appropriately selected for the occasion, and arrived in Malta bearing the original Air Malta livery.
Present for the inauguration were the Ambassadors of the countries where Air Malta started its flights in 1974, as well as the cabin crew of the first two inaugural flights.
Also in attendance were various personalities who helped the airline in its first years, including the former Air Malta chairman, former Air Malta staff, PIA, and other VIPs.
In June 2018 Air Malta received its first A320Neo.
Post COVID-19, Air Malta has been seriously struggling financially. Air Malta was reportedly facing a loss of €30 Million, a year after recording profit for first time in 18 years.
Air Malta and its employees now face uncertainty and it has plans to lay off a large chunk of its workforce.
In April 2020, ALPA, which is the union's airline pilot association refused outright an offer placed for its pilots to be set on a 1200 Euros monthly pay due to COVID-19's impact on shutting down the international airport in Malta which happened on 3 May 2020 and bringing visitor levels to below 0.2% affecting Air Malta both directly and massively.
Dom Mintoff who set up Air Malta must be now rolling in his grave.
Malta's Recent Past Aviation History with the UK -
British Island Airways held a scheduled route licence from Gatwick to Malta with BAC 1-11's but following the collapse of BIA in 1991
Air Europe pounced on the Malta services and were soon operating Boeing 757 aircraft to the sunshine island - short-lived as AE collapsed too.
Dan-Air were granted the licence to fly to Malta and took on the Gatwick - Malta route, but they too would soon disappear at the end of 1992.
BritishJET was a trading name for the in-house airline of tour operator Malta Bargains Limited based in Malta.
It operated flight-only and inclusive tour charter flights from Malta International Airport to Gatwick and other UK regional airports from May 2005.
Malta Bargains Holidays (previously Malta Sun Holidays) was licensed by the UK CAA as a Tour Operator.
The fleet consisted of a sole leased McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30 and was operated on its behalf by the Swiss airline Hello.
In 2008 BritishJET ceased operations as their contract with Malta Bargains ended, and ironically Air Malta KM took over the MD-90 lease to operate Malta Bargains' flights.
In 2009
British Airways stopped the Malta-London service.
This is the second time that British Airways had ceased operations to Malta. The first time was in the late 1980s.
The London-Malta route was then taken over by British Airways franchise
GB Airways in 1995 but who were bought by Easyjet in 2008 which also took over the London Gatwick-Malta route, but British Airways had maintained and kept the Malta-London route.
The GB Airways name disappeared from British aviation after 77 years.
Other recent notables setting up in Malta are -
Lauda Europe as already mentioned.
Corendon Airlines Europe, is a European charter airline headquartered in Luqa and based at Malta International Airport. It carries a Maltese AOC, as does
Freebird Airlines Europe, now also an EU charter airline, based in Malta.
In July 2022 it was announced that Eurowings Europe Gmbh would leave its Austrian registration and it too would register in Malta and be renamed as Eurowings Europe Ltd.
There is also Avion Express Malta, Hifly Malta, and SmartLynx Malta (All passenger ACMI airlines)
Titan Airways UK launched Titan Airways Malta on July 29, 2021 and obtained an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Directorate at Transport Malta. An Airbus A321-200 is their first aircraft to be added to the Maltese AOC.