Ready for take off! Air Malta in talks to launch flights to West Africa this year
If you love travelling and have already exhausted all possible destinations serviced from Malta, hold tight to your seats because a new destination might be launched sooner than you think!
Malta’s national airline, Air Malta, is currently in talks with Ghana to provide a link between the two countries, thus adding West Africa to the airline’s current destinations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. There are currently no direct flights between Malta and Ghana, with journeys between the two countries having multiple stops.
Famed for its spectacular golden sandy beaches - a whole 300 mile stretch of it, tropical climate, nature reserves and rich culture, Ghana has steadily risen to become Africa's biggest economy and is also said to be the world's fastest growing economy.
News of an imminent link between Malta and Ghana came through Yoofi Grant, CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre: “We look at Malta as a steppingstone into the EU market while Malta looks at Ghana as a steppingstone into the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Economic Community of West African States market. We complement each other in many ways,” Yoofi told news portal GhanaWeb.
He also highlighted the fact that Ghana was Africa’s strongest and probably the world’s fastest growing economy, Malta’s too was amongst the best in Europe. Lino Mintoff, Head of Membership Development and Internationalisation at the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said that the Maltese trade mission is interested in forming a rapport with Ghana and working on building trust between the two countries: “We are very much open for business and that’s why we are here. We want to build a long-term relationship with the Ghanaian people and Ghanaian companies,” Lino said.
The arrangement between Air Malta and Ghana has not yet been finalized but talks are in progress to determine whether the flight should go directly to the capital, Accra, and then to the sub-region, or whether Accra would be used as a transit point. Discussions are also being held to determine whether Air Malta will carry revenue traffic between foreign countries as part of services connecting the airline’s own country.
Sources report the link can come into effect as early as the second quarter of 2020!