4/10

    From 14 passenger reviews

    Laurie

    from Malta - June 6, 2019

    Flew Economy Class

    Overall Score

    4/10

    • Overall Value for Money

    • Seat and Cabin Space

    • Customer Service

    • In Flight Entertainment

    • Baggage Handling

    • Check-in Process

    • Meals and Beverages

    • Recommend Airline

      No

    Every time there is a problem with check-in. Instead of having designated check-in desks for each destination they have about five for all destinations. This causes all sorts of problems as each flight has differing takeoff times. If there’s a huge holdup in your queue with everyone going to different places that the earlier flights have the danger of either missing their flight or spending so much time queuing you get no time to have breakfast before boarding.
    Travelling to Heathrow from Malta in April this year the computer in our queue packed up. Instead of using some intelligence and splitting our queue into other ones which were working we were simply standing waiting. I had got tto the airport early and spent almost an hour in the queue just standing. In the end I jumped queues as I was worried I might miss my flight. The check-in staff are very slow, the slowest out of all the many airlines I’ve travelled with. Last December’s check-in was chaotic and as they had overbooked some passengers couldn’t even board. Every check-in I have with them is hell. The only trouble is I have to use them as there is no alternative.

    Andrea

    from United Kingdom - January 3, 2019

    Flew Economy Class

    Overall Score

    1/10

    • Overall Value for Money

    • Seat and Cabin Space

    • Customer Service

    • In Flight Entertainment

    • Meals and Beverages

    • Recommend Airline

      No

    We departed on the morning of Dec, 24th from London Southend with slight delay but the captain told us that thanks to favorable winds we would arrive earlier in Catania (Sicily). When flying over the city of Palermo the pilot announced that due to Mount Etna eruption the airport of Catania would have been closed and we would land in Malta. We were all surprised: there are at the least 5 airports nearby Catania (Palermo, Comiso, Trapani, Reggio Calabria, Lamezia Terme), all suitable for a transfer by bus but this airline decided to land in Malta, (a tiny island surrounded by sea): I can imagine that RyanAir would not have decided to go back to Ireland nor Easyjet to UK. Soon after the captain announced that we would land to Comiso (Sicily) so we proceeded: when at a few feet from the ground the airplane gained again altitude and our hopes were again broke by the announcement that because of the strong winds it was not possible to land in Comiso and would proceed to Malta: other flights landed at the same time in Comiso so I don’t believe it was not possible but probably the pilots were not able to do the maneuver. We thought that we would have just a short delay: as soon as we spoke with the Luqa airport AirMalta ground staff and the Info kiosk staff we realized that we would not have any change to spend our Christmas with our families. Air Malta staff appeared unaware of our redirected flight and was unable to answer our requests for assistance. Malta is connected regularly via ferries and speedy boats to Sicily but the Air Malta staff told us that there would have been an announcement in 20 minutes time. Twenty minutes passed and so 40 and so 1 hour and the staff from the help desk were abandoning their seats till when there was no staff at the front office. Passengers were worried, and we started asking for bottles of water and lunch voucher but they kept saying there would be an announcement in a minutes. We could have been transferred to Sicily by ferry boat or speedy boats but instead Air Malta spending time agreeing a strategy: useless to contact them by phone as the operators were keeping saying that the number was only for reservations. After 2 hours standing up, without drinking nor eating, a person (it is impossible to say if he was from Air Malta or from the airport because did not have any identification nor introduced himself) told us that we would have the possibility to go on a flight to Rome but that we would have to arrange our transfer by ourselves: I don’t know the level of education in Malta but the fact you arrive in Rome doesn’t mean you are close to Sicily. All of this on Christmas Eve, when all transportations are fully booked. All passengers agreed that we was not an option and, frustrated, angry and stressed by the lack of assistance received started talking with the front desk until an answer would have given. After an hour the staff told us to move at the check in desk for the flight to Rome that would land in Catania first. We moved at the check-in desk but the staff at the desk was unaware that would land to Catania and denied us to check in. After 45 minutes standing up in front of the desk the first passenger received the boarding pass. The flight was planned for 19:00 but I received my boarding pass at around 19:45. No monitor was mentioning Catania nor our flight number was matching with any on the screen: we just knew we had a boarding pass for a flight in the past to Catania in our hands. Finally we have been advised to proceed to a gate and we went on the airplane at 8.30 pm. The flight was already in extreme delay and the crew was going back and forth counting the passengers on the flight (they were searching for someone and they did this five or six times) delaying even more the departure. We would have already been in Catania if the flight would have depart at 7 pm or 8 pm (it just 20 minutes flight) but at 9 pm the staff told us that we would have to get off the airplane because Catania Airport would be closed starting from 9.30 pm. The passengers didn’t want to follows this order and the captain went out from the cabin and called the police. The situation was unreal: children crying, an adult having a crisis that required the assistance from a doctor (among the passengers), the police shouting against passengers saying not to shout until when they started forcedly removing our hand. At that point we had no option than return to the terminal. Again here we passed 3 hours and we received no kind of assistance. At 11 pm the Air Malta desk told us that 2 flight would have been placed for us the day after to Comiso and that we would have to check-in at 5 am; they told us also that we would have been granted with a meal voucher and an hotel room: we were diffident after all the breached promises by Air Malta. After 30 minutes queuing I received my light meal for the Costa Coffee and a 1 single bedroom hotel room: the staff kept saying that we would have to use an app called Taxify to arrange our transfer from and to the airport. Nobody wanted to get stuck in Sliema (a town of Malta where the hotel was located) because of lack of transportation on Christmas day so the majority decided to sleep on the ground or in the seats of the Costa Coffee in the airport. It was impossible to ask for a quite environment as there was a Christmas concert in the airport so nobody managed to have a proper sleep. The time passed, very slow but at 5 am we queued at the check-in, we received our boarding pass and we arrived in Comiso at around 8.30 am on Christmas day; from Comiso a shuttle bus has been arranged to bring us to Catania airport, were our parents were waiting for us: it would have been impossible to reach our destinations without the help of our beloved on day without any kind of ground transportation. We arrived at destination with more than 20 hours delay, we stood up on our feet for more than 8 hours, we did not drink for more than 5 hours, we did not eat for more than 9 hours, we will never trust Air Malta again.

    Jill

    from United Kingdom - May 30, 2017

    Flew Economy

    Overall Score

    9/10

    • Overall Value for Money

    • Seat and Cabin Space

    • Customer Service

    • In Flight Entertainment

    • Meals and Beverages

    • Recommend Airline

      Yes

    We flew back from Malta to Gatwick on this Airline for the first time and thought it was great. Cabin crew were very nice; seating adequate for economy, would recommend it.

    Joerg

    from Austria - October 30, 2015

    Flew Economy

    Overall Score

    3/10

    • Overall Value for Money

    • Seat and Cabin Space

    • Customer Service

    • In Flight Entertainment

    • Meals and Beverages

    • Recommend Airline

      No

    Flight from Vienna to Malta, which was not on time. Leg room was poor, in-flight service non existent apart from a complimentary cheap baguette (no choice offered) and a bottle of water. There wasn’t much of a difference when compared to a budget airline, but the ticket was considerably more expensive.

    EDITORS COMMENT: Good to know! Thanks for sharing

    Vito

    from Australia - October 30, 2015

    Flew Economy

    Overall Score

    1/10

    • Overall Value for Money

    • Seat and Cabin Space

    • Customer Service

    • In Flight Entertainment

    • Meals and Beverages

    • Recommend Airline

      No

    Arrogant staff. My 2 year old child started crying due the steep descend and then steep ascend being that the Airline could not land in Catania Airport due to traffic.
    The silly Hostess acknowledged my child’s anguish and decided to walk up the aisle with her hands over her ears with a sarcastic look. Typical Maltese Arrogance!

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