Air Malta

History

After the Second World War, several small private airlines were formed in Malta, including: The Malta Instone Airline, BAS (Malta) Ltd, and Malta Airlines. In 1947 the former two companies merged to form Air Malta Ltd in fierce competition with the latter. Eventually in 1951 Malta Airlines absorbed the operations of Air Malta Ltd and continued operating through an agreement with BEA until 1973. The owners of Air Malta Ltd used their real estate, staff and equipment to set up a ground handling company called MAS, Malta Aviation Services.Air Malta was set up by a Resolution of Malta's House of Representatives on March 1973.After the opening of Malta International Airport in 1992, Air Malta created CargoSystems, which includes the air transportation of cargo on Air Malta planes. In 1994, Air Malta inaugurated a cargo center at the airport.In September 1995 Air Malta announced the setting up of its own captive insurance company, Shield Insurance Company (Guernsey) Ltd.

About the airline

Air Malta plc is the national airline of Malta, headquartered in Luqa. The airline's hub and base is at Malta International Airport. Air Malta is owned by the Maltese government (98%) and private investors (2%). Air Malta also has 4 subsidiaries, namely: Osprey Insurance Brokers Co Ltd, Holiday Malta, Shield Insurance and Sabratha.According to the Association of European Airlines quarterly review of May 2006 Air Malta is the airline that loses the least amount of passenger baggage.

Main route

It operates services to 36 destinations in Malta, Europe, Middle East and North Africa: Libya, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

Fleet

The Air Malta’scurrent fleet consists of the following aircrafts: 5 Airbus A319-100 and 6 Airbus A320-200.