Saturday, April 07, 2007

Congratulations Air Malta.

On my regular trips too and from the Maltese Islands I generally fly Air Malta, I have never had any problems and have always been happy with them. The only issues have been delayed take offs from London Heathrow, I think that this is a problem with the extremely busy Heathrow Airport, and not a fault of Air Malta. A number of budget airlines now fly to Malta latest being Ryan Air at cut prices but I believe that you get what you pay for, and until you pay your final bill with Ryan Air it is not always very clear exactly what you are paying for. On the face of it it seems very cheap but then you add the inevitable taxes, pay for bags, pay for priority boarding, pay for your coffee or tea, pay for any food that you want, and as Gill's parents found on a recent visit to Gozo it turns out to be more expensive than you first think it would be, so if booking Ryan Air be warned add all the extras to the stated price.

I know that in some parts of the travel industry there was a fear of Ryan Air forcing Air Malta to cut their prices to unsustainable levels to try and compete with the budget airlines, this certainly does not seem to be the case on the Air Malta flights that I travel on, they always seem to be full, or certainly 90% full.

The point I was going to make before I started waffling was that The Association of European Airlines have done a report on how the airlines look after our baggage. The airline that managed to lose most luggage was Britain's flag ship airline British Airways, they manged to lose 23 bags for every 1000 customers that they carried, needles to say the UK press and media made best use of that news never missing a chance to knock a big name company. The airline that looks after your luggage best, or at least losses the least luggage in Europe is Air Malta, they only lost 4 bags per 1000 customers, congratulations Air Malta.

The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines.
Henry J Tillman

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