Air Malta Increases Flight Options to Russia

This summer Air Malta will significantly increase its seat capacity into Russia to support the strong demand for leisure breaks on the Mediterranean Island for Russian citizens. The small national carrier confirms that overall capacity on its routes to Pulkovo International Airport in St Petersburg and Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo Airports in the capital Moscow will grow by 50 per cent compared to summer 2011 with over 82,700 seats available.

The expanded schedule was revealed by Air Malta's Chief Commercial Officer, Philip Saunders during a speech at the ITB travel trade fair held in Berlin, Germany last week. He highlighted that following strong demand from Russia, the airline had seized the opportunity to expand its activities this summer and would operate 92 additional flights to the Russian airports. "This season we expect to generate over 7,000 more return passengers than last summer thus generating new tourism opportunities between the two countries," said Saunders.

“This season we expect to generate over 7,000 more return passengers than last summer thus generating new tourism opportunities between the two countries.”

Philip Saunders
Chief Commercial Officer, Air Malta

Air Malta’s schedule will change through the season but during the summer peak it will be operating an average of seven weekly flights to Moscow's Domodedovo, including twice daily operations every Friday and Saturday. The airline will also offer two weekly flights to Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg, with an additional frequency to Russia’s second city during the peak travel periods.

The Russian market has always been very important to Air Malta. The Maltese airline started charter operations to Moscow and St Petersburg in June 1996. Over the last 10 years the market has grown substantially and since then it generated almost 370,000 passengers. Last year Air Malta carried 50,000 scheduled passengers to/from Russia, representing an increase of 16 per cent over the previous year.

Air Malta is the only carrier to offer scheduled flights between Malta and Russia. In the past Aeroflot Russian Airlines also operated flights from Moscow Sheremetyevo, with almost departures in 1999 and 2000, but the Russian flag carrier now codeshares on Air Malta’s services. In the table below we highlight the schedule capacity between Malta and Russia since 2000. In the past two years seat capacity in this market has grown 14.0 per cent and 20.4 per cent year-on-year after two successive years of decline. The summer 2013 plans of Air Malta mean that this year will see the second largest seat offering between Malta and Russia since the change of Millennium.