Maltese national airline Air Malta, will be reducing the frequency on some of its routes during the months of January and February this year, following a downturn in demand.

That being said, it will retain all of its existing routes and vowed not to cancel any of the 16 routes planned for the winter.

Air Malta said that as of late, it has suffered a dip in demand, referencing a drop in bookings, presumably due to the Omicron variant causing a rise in COVID-19 cases all over the world, thus disrupting travel. David Curmi, Air Malta executive chairman, said that decisions had to be made in order to match customer demand and not let almost-empty aircrafts fly. The situation is being assessed and will continue to be assessed until demand returns to previous levels.

“In these situations, we need to be very agile and financially disciplined to be able to adjust seat capacity and focus on efficiency to protect our liquidity and cash performance. Given the unprecedented times we are living in and the challenges Air Malta is facing, we are continuously optimising our network for profitability and liquidity, and we plan to continue to do so without compromises,” he said.

David Curmi added that Air Malta will remain committed to providing a year-round link to mainland Europe for travel and tourism, but also for the transfer of medical cargo, mail and other import and export freight.

As it stands, the routes that will be impacted by flight cancellations have not been specified.