Air Malta is facing troubled times ahead as it reports huge revenue losses due to grounded flights and limited passenger movements over the Icelandic ash cloud that has covered Europe’s skies.
“These huge losses that are increasing everyday are continuing to hit hard on Air Malta after the heavy financial losses registered by the airline in 2009 with record oil prices,” Air Malta CEO Joe Capello told Business Today.
According to Capello, for the past days, Air Malta has been carrying just 23 per cent of its passenger traffic, while bookings have drastically fallen from their normal rate.
“We have a situation where our forecasts have literally gone haywire, while all our costs have remained or perhaps increased, while revenue has stopped dramatically because of the fact that we cannot fly because of airport and air space closures all over Europe,” Capello said.
“So far, Air Malta has been carrying just a fraction of its normal traffic, while we are incurring the costs of helping stranded passengers,” he said, adding that although Air Malta does not incur the costs of placing passengers in hotels, it is accepting to change tickets or arrange changes to airport destinations through Air Malta code-share partners at no cost.
Meanwhile the volcanic ash cloud that continues to loom over Europe is also effecting the local hotel market, with a number of hotels facing severe problems as travellers remain blocked overseas and cannot fly over, leaving hotel rooms empty.
Hotelier Winston Zahra Jr told Business Today that the situation is different throughout the categories of hotels.
“Five star hotel clients afford to overstay in the absence of outbound flights, but we face losses on incoming travellers as they cant get to Malta,” he said.
