|
The results for Air Malta are nothing to write home about with the airline carrying almost 30,000 less passengers for the first quarter 2006 when compared to the same period last year and a total decline of 46,000 passengers for all of the airline’s financial year.
During the same quarter, seat factor on Air Malta’s scheduled services was 62%, slightly lower than the previous year.
Traffic on its scheduled network to and from Malta reached 233,000 a decrease of 8,000 passengers, while charter passengers were halved to 14,000 compared to the same quarter last year. There was a marginal decrease in passenger traffic on intra European routes and on the airline’s UK base charter operation.
During this period Air Malta flew 1,600 flights on its whole network. The airline provided 377,000 seats on its scheduled operations representing an increase of 1,000 on the corresponding period the previous year. The airline also increased by 2 percentage points its punctuality reaching 80%. An airline spokesperson confirmed that the 1st Quarter of 2006, being the low winter period, has been negative for the airline.
Air Malta’s financial year is April to March; so the 1st quarter results are the final set of data to complete the whole financial year 2005/06. Air Malta reported that during the entire financial year (2005/6) it carried a total of 1.86 million passengers on its whole network, a decrease of 46,000 passengers (-2.4%) when compared to the previous year. Scheduled services lost 9,000 passengers while charter traffic on the Malta based routes decreased by 75,000. This was partially compensated by an increase of 8,500 passengers on Intra European flights and 30,000 passengers on the UK based charter operations. Intra European services became possible for Air Malta when Malta acceded to the EU in May 2004.
During this financial year the Maltese airline flew 9,000 flights on its whole network. It provided 2.1 million seats on its scheduled operations representing an increase of 43,000 on the corresponding period the previous year. Air Malta has also increased its punctuality by 4 percentage points which reached 76%. The increase in seat capacity highlights the commitment of Air Malta in sustaining the development of tourism to Malta and confirms the incessant support of the airline to the local tourism industry.
Commenting on these results Chairman Lawrence Zammit said, “It was a tough year with Fuel Costs soaring up at unprecedented levels whilst traffic was stagnant. Competition on the Malta route was ferocious with an over abundance of seats and very aggressive pricing. The end result is expected to see another loss making year in spite of drastic cuts in the airline’s non-fuel cost base.”
The airline maintained that the efficiencies and improvements in its cost base committed during the Rescue Plan have all been maintained with the exception of Fuel. The bill for this vital commodity has shot up to Lm21.6 million from Lm16.5 million the previous year. The airline expects the fuel bill to top Lm29 million for the next year if fuel costs remain at current levels.
|
