[Anonymous]

[JeffD]

I would be interested to hear from anyone who had flown Air Malta recently. I am thinking of working there for a while and will need to use there state airline quiet a bit. So can I please have your views on both economy and business class.

[Bucksnet]

Their state airline is quite good according to Disgusted. I have not used them before, so maybe he will give you the full SP.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Hi Jeffrey

KM has an average economy service, with seat pitch that can be tight (depending on which airframe you fly on. 9H-AEQ springs to mind.

The food is okay and alcoholic drinks are available for a small sum, 3€ rings a bell.

The business class (Club) is rather better to my way of thinking and has 3 x 3 seating, with the middle seat empty and the back folding down to form a tray. The first 4 rows have increased seat pitch, similar to BA or LH in business.

Food is plentiful, some may say a little uninspired, with main dishes such as Papardelle with shrimps, roast pork, roast beef. It is served on a decent tray, with a paper tablecloth.

There are usually 2 hot towel services, one before dinner and one before landing, as well as a non alcoholic preflight drink.

The ‘house’ champagne is currently Drappier (not my favourite) and a full range of drinks is carried in the free bar.

As with many things in Malta, the service can be slightly variable (although I have only had 4-5 really bad flights out of about 250) and if you travel frequently, the crew will start to recognise you and they really do appreciate that you are helping to keep the airline in business, some will even tell you that.

What will happen this year is hard to predict; 512 jobs will go from the group and I think 3 aircraft. Morale is taking a hit, although I haven’t seen service levels affected; I do know quite a few of the crew and thus I have a reasonable view of this.

As to service cutbacks, I don’t know, but the management will have to be very careful as there is intense competition on the London routes with easyJet and Ryanair and removing differentiation would not be a smart move.

KM use T4 at LHR and the South terminal at LGW. There are usually 3 return flights per day across the two, but it can be as many as 5 in summer.

They use the Holi lounge at T4, which has seen better days but is still a private lounge and the Servisair lounges at LGW, which are poor, but better than sitting in the terminal.

Flypass, the FQTV programme is pretty good, with points building quickly in club and one way upgrades between London and Malta being 10,000 miles (you typically earn 5000-9000 per flight, depending on the fare.) Bizarrely, upgrades do not qualify for lounge access officially.

Overall, I find KM club a very pleasant experience and the airline is also quite punctual.

If you need any more info, just post here and I’ll be pleased to help.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Update.

Passed through LHR yesterday, to find that KM are now using the Etihad lounge, which is a world class facility.

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