Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment Tonio Fenech, whilst visiting AirMalta’s offices, has announced the removal of the departure tax from the 1st of November 2008, a decision that is intended to facilitate travelling opportunities, whether for holidays, work or business for all Maltese and Gozitan citizens.

Addressing the media, Minister Fenech gave a brief historical perspective of this tax. This goes back to 1st February 1997, when the Labour Government had introduced this tax on the Maltese traveller, and increased it again during the following year. Now, thanks to Government’s sound financial policy, it was able to reduce taxes, just as it had done during the previous two years, such as in the reduction of the income tax, and now also with the removal of the departure tax.

Minister Fenech also spoke about AirMalta and welcomed the positive results that have been achieved between April and June, with an average increase of 14%, meaning 60,000 extra passengers. He expressed his satisfaction at AirMalta’s important contribution towards tourism in Malta and noted that the airline had registered its largest increase in its history, at 30% more than the same month last year. In absolute terms, this means 40,000 more passengers.

These figures resulted thanks to a number of commercial initiatives, internal re-organisation, investment in e-business systems and an international call centre together with a new portal. This was accompanied by a massive marketing campaign around Europe with specific attention to the core markets of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France.

This success must be considered in the light of ever-increasing competition and the situation with regards to the international price of fuel, with the price of fuel jet increasing at an even higher rate than that of oil. Consequently, it was inevitable for the company to introduce a surcharge to reduce its cost: over the last three years alone, AirMalta was paying 30 million EUR more for fuel. The surcharge covered only 15% of the total cost.

Minister Fenech thanked AirMalta’s employees pointing out that the increase in productivity, resulting also from a restructuring process, is an important factor that has contributed to this success.

The Minister met with AirMalta’s new Board and visited a number of employees. Lawrence Zammit, AirMalta Chairman, was present for the press conference.

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