Air Malta To Shutdown in 2024

Air Malta will officially close in March 2024 and make way for a new national airline.

Malta’s government will similarly close the carrier to Alitalia’s departure from the industry that turned into the birth of ITA. Air Malta will thus see a replacement arrive immediately.

This is per the Prime Minister of Malta, who noted that Air Malta continues to be a loss maker, and thanks to this, there’s no reason to continue.

Malta believes having an airline for enhanced connectivity and future growth is essential. However, Air Malta has been struggling for some time, and similarly to what took place with ITA, the vision with a carrier reborn is to pump additional funds.

A fundamental stumbling block for the current Air Malta was the refusal from the European Union to continue adding fresh state aid to the company. Malta believes they were thus given no choice.

Talk of shutting down Air Malta has been a long time in the making, with a lot more thought going into the shutdown and official plans for a relaunch coming into the picture.

Per Cirium, Air Malta currently has a fleet of nine aircraft. These are for the A320 family, with three A320-200s and six A320neos.

However, the airline will see eight Airbus A320neo aircraft flying from March 31 2024, when the new airline is slated to launch operations.

The new national airline will look towards being profitable for the long term and sustainable on its own without further backing required from the government. It is a lengthy and ambitious process, but one that there is a firm belief can be achieved.