Air Malta - What are they like?

[BAe 146-100]

Hi,

Flying on Air Malta to Paphos from Manchester in late March. Looks like its going to be operated by a A320 (can anyone confirm this?).

I'm just wondering what Air Malta are like to fly on? Do KM A320s have IFE, etc.

Regards
BAe 146 ;)

[MadsDad]

Flew with them (from Bristol) earlier this year.

Trip was ok except that the landing on the outbound trip was a bit rough (starboard wing very low, didn't seem to be any particular reason, not terribly windy) and on the return trip we turned up on time at check-in but the staff didn't turn up until an hour later (but that is presumably down to the handling agent, not the airline).

Aircraft (A320) was fine & clean with more legroom than most charters. Food was ok, drinks service limited (couldn't get a beer!).

[igb56]

Assume KM undercut British operators on prices. How else could they keep operation going here? Do they have sales force going round tour operators quoting for work? Are UK based planes kept here or do they work in with UK - MLA diagrams?

[ZRH]

I flew with them from in 2003 on the B737 from ZRH-MLA-ZRH.
There was no news forthcoming from the cockpit, not even a "Cabin crew yellow door selectors armed" or "cabin crew, 2 minutes to take off". Nothing! We had push-back and then taxied and took off. First infos from the flight deck were close to top of D and then it consisted of "wx at Malta is fine"
Nothing more after that.
Food was average airline food(economy seat).
Return flight was delayed for 1hour due tech but went along similar lines. Nothing bad, but nothing good either.
The cabin crew wasn't particularly friendly either. They served your food without a "good morning" which was fine, but its things like that a person remembers.
Landings were smooth. No IFE on the B737. I think they're fazing them out and getting them replaced with the A320.

[BAe 146-100]

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. Air Malta sound fine, just what I expected really.

igb56

It is an Airtours holiday, I'm presuming that the flights would have originally been operated by MyTravel, but it looks like MYT have subcharted the MAN-PFO-MAN Sunday flight to Air Malta. My flight has actually been operating since October last year.

Are UK based planes kept here or do they work in with UK - MLA diagrams?

From Air Malta website:

Two dedicated Airbus A320 aircraft in 180-seat configuration in Air Malta colours operate the series and Air Malta’s UK-based engineering personnel, cabin crew and flight crew, support the flights.

The aircraft that are operating the programme from airports such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow as well as regional airports in the United Kingdom to a number of destinations in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal to name but a few, are the leased Airbus A320s with registration 9H-ADY and 9H-AER. These aircraft, together with crew, will be based in the UK. Both aircraft have substantial pre-planned and confirmed programmes that generate high utilisation during the peak 23 weeks between May and October 2004.

ZRH

Your experience doesn't sound too good, but that was in 2003 and on a 737-300 and with MLA based crew. The UK charter operation sounds fine from what MadsDad said.

Regards :)
BAe 146

[BAe 146-100]

I have just found out that my outbound service KM 4774 has had a departure time change from 1155 to 1410 . The weird thing is that that flight on the following week is scheduled at the normal time of 1155, does anyone know why they have done this? Does the aircraft need to be used elsewhere during the morning?

Cheers
BAe 146