Ryanair drops Malta-Valencia route from winter schedule

Ryanair unveiled its upcoming winter schedule, which will see 36 weekly flights across several countries in Europe.

The new routes are unchanged from last winter, save for the omission of a route to Valencia (Spain) which operated once a week. Last winter Ryanair operated 37 flights to Malta per week and this year it would operate 36. One aircraft will continue to be based in Malta.

The low-cost carrier will operate six routes to Italy, which will operate between twice to three times per week as follows. Bologna, Trapani, and Venice Treviso will operate three times per week, while Bari, Pisa, and Turin will operate twice a week.

There will be also two flights per week to Marseille (France), Dublin (Ireland), Madrid (Spain), and Eindhoven (Netherlands). A route to Stockholm (Sweden) will operate once per week.

Ryanair will also retain its six UK routes, which will operate between one to three times per week as follows.

The routes to Birmingham, Bristol, and London Stansted will operate twice a week, while the route to London Luton will operate three times per week. The route to Edinburgh will operate once per week.

Compared to the summer schedule, the winter schedule means the termination of routes such as those to Valencia, Girona and Seville (Spain), and Malmo (Sweden), Oslo (Norway) and Kaunus (Lithuania)

Announcing the winter schedule, Ryanair's Luis Fernández Mellado praised the performance of Malta's tourism sector, and said that Ryanair is confident in Malta's future success.

He also emphasised that Ryanair is committed to fostering Malta's desirability as a destination and said that the low-cost carrier would be doing its utmost to promote it.

Noting the absence of a number of summer routes from the winter schedule, Fernández Mellado said that these would "almost certainly" be reinstated in the summer, however adding that the summer schedule "is still not finalised."

Fernández Mellado attributed the cutbacks in routes to low demand during the winter, as well as fuel prices.

Asked about the Valencia route suspension, he said that "there is no justification to operate the route during the winter," he said while confirming that Ryanair plans to restore the route in summer.

He also denied that the route was suspended due to disagreements between Ryanair and the Valencia airport, insisting that it was only due to the route's seasonal limitations.

Fernández Mellado said that to celebrate its 3 millionth passenger to and from Malta, Ryanair has launched a seat sale with thousands of seats starting from €12 for travel across Europe on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in November.

Booking has to be made by Thursday, October 11th.

He reiterated Ryanair's commitment to being Europe's number one low-cost carrier, and to keep bringing more and more passengers to Malta.