KM Malta To Focus On Key Hubs, Adding Premium Traffic

Malta’s new flag-carrier KM Malta Airlines will focus on increasing frequencies to core cities, rather than adding new destinations, as it seeks to capture more premium business and leisure traffic.

The airline took over services from its predecessor Air Malta on March 31, offering a slimmed-down network using a fleet of eight Airbus A320-family aircraft. The carrier is serving 17 destinations during the summer 2024 season, down from 23 Air Malta destinations during summer 2023 and 43 in summer 2019, before the pandemic.

Speaking at Routes Europe 2024 in Aarhus, Denmark, KM Malta's head of network and commercial partnerships, Frederic Revol, said the new airline has a more commercially efficient network than Air Malta, concentrating on connecting Malta to key European hubs.

“Our focus is on main capital cities and larger cities with strong connectivity,” Revol said. “We will not fly to airports mainly catering more toward low-cost operators—that is their business model, not ours. Our model is to go to the key airports.”

KM Malta’s network includes hubs like Amsterdam Schiphol, Brussels, London Heathrow, Munich, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rome Fiumicino and Vienna. The summer schedule will comprise about 1.4 million seats, with 72 flights per week to Italy, 48 to France, 44 to the UK and 40 to Germany.

Revol said that by utilizing codeshare and interline partnerships across the 17 destinations, a virtual network encompassing 401 points within one stop of Malta is established. Approximately 150 of these points are considered feasible. Codeshares are already in place with the likes of Air France-KLM, Emirates, Lufthansa Group and Qatar Airways.

Revol said that Malta’s small size and population means it is crucial to rely on indirect connectivity from such airports: “We’re therefore not focused on adding more destinations, but adding more frequencies. Our aim is to go double-daily on some of the key destinations.” He added that this strategy should help to reduce seasonal spikes and position Malta as a year-round destination.

KM Malta’s fleet comprises six A320neos and two A320ceos. The ceos are expected to be phased out by mid-August and replaced by two more neos, meaning that from Sept. 1 the airline will have an all-A320neo fleet.

Revol explained that a key difference between KM Malta and Air Malta is the focus on premium business and leisure traffic—KM Malta operates a fleet with 36 business-class seats, compared with the 12 previously offered by Air Malta. “We're concentrating on routes with high demand for business class,” he said. “That's where the money is.”

KM Malta hopes to achieve a load factor of 90% this summer.