FROM THE CHAIRPERSON...

FROM THE EDITOR...

Dear travellers,

A warm welcome on-board to all our passengers.

As we enter the month of February, are seeing some clear early indications of boo king trends emerging for 2023. During the period April to December 2022, Air Malta carried 1.4 million passengers. Early bookings for 2023 are already significantly ahead of the year prior and all indicators suggest we are going to beat 2022 and the post-COVID demand for travel is likely to continue into Summer 2023.

In addition to the routes operated in 2022, four new destinations have already been added to the Air Malta network, these being Naples, Nice, Palermo and Tel Aviv. We are now pleased to announce that we are further expanding our network to include Portugal, by adding Lisbon as our fifth new route for Summer 2023. Effective as from Monday 26th June, Lisbon will operate twice weekly on Monday and Thursdays, through until Thursday 26th October.

This expanded growth in Summer scheduled operations will see Air Malta increase its network to an average of 157 rotations (314 flights) per week, linking Malta with 23 major cities across Europe and the UK.

We will continue to remain focused on serving key European cities which provide strong connectivity links with our wide range of codeshare partner airlines, facilitating onwards connectivity to other parts of the world.

This month we are pleased to be launching our new Buy-on-Board programme. This supplement can be found in your seat pocket, featuring new jewellery items by Maltese designer Bijou Michiko, gifts and perfumes, as well as an extensive variety of menu options. In addition to reserving your preferred seat choices and booking additional baggage, you can also pre-order your preferred meal selection on airmalta.com. Value and comfort are at the centre of our commitment to you and we strive to be your natural choice of airline to the Maltese islands.

For more information about Air Malta and our flight schedules please visit www.airmalta.com and www.facebook.com/AirMalta and join our newsletter mailing list to receive offers directly in your inbox. Every few weeks we come out with exciting promotional offers and you need to be registered to our newsletter to be able to get notice of our promotions.

I hope you have a great flight!

David G Curmi EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, AIR MALTA

There’s so much to love about Malta at any time of year, and in this edition, we are sharing some fabulous spots and ideas to celebrate Galantine’s – the relatively new unofficial day of celebration for friendships on February 13th, and for those wishing to celebrate their romantic relationship, St Valentine’s which falls on February 14th with you too.

To gain points for an unusual date, try a trek with a gorgeous family of alpaca’s in Gozo, take a picnic to a secluded or stunning spot from our list, or have your cake and eat it from a plate you design and fire, in a rural setting!

There’s Tosca at the Manoel Theatre – even a tour is a treat, and Valletta comes alive with colour, music and performances with Carnival from the 17th-21st of the month.

If you haven’t planned anything and want to do something speci al, why not take a look at Nice? We explore this new Air Malta destination with a man that knows it well and takes us to corners of the city that your average guidebook misses. It’s worth a trip on its own merit – and it screams elegance and romance without the kookily dresse d youngsters mimicking a certain Paris-based TV show!

We con tinue our series on locals’ passions; this month with a dancer who has won many a competition and now teaches over 140 children various disciplines of dance. We also meet Malta’s very own Prince Charming; Citoyen Port, a wonderful young man who creates and wears historically accurate, incredibly beautiful clothing from the 1750’s to 1800, and a young woman who is transforming old photogra phs with her imagination ad embroidery skills.

We look back at the introduction of chocolate to Malta and celebrate food with a seasonal recipe and restaurant listings to satiate your appetite. Check them out for yourself with brunch, lunch or dinner…

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

Monique Chambers EDITOR