An Open Letter of Thanks to AirMalta
As Europe caves in under snow and ice, Isabelle Vella Gregory, Maltese but living in England, writes an open letter of heartfelt thanks to the airline that brought her home for Christmas, against all odds.
Dear Mona,
I am sure your readers are familiar with the current travel situation in Europe, particularly in England. My partner and I would like to thank Air Malta for the way they handled the crisis. We were scheduled to leave Gatwick on Saturday, 18 December at 11.55am. Due to disruptions, we had to transfer to Stansted airport and finally flew home late on Sunday the 19th. The journey was not a pleasant one, but a combination of (mostly) wonderful and good humoured fellow passengers and, more importantly, Air Malta's genuine concern for its customers ensured we arrived home safely. At Stansted airport, management was quite happy to leave us to our own devices. However, Captain Galdes and his crew insisted that the airport provide us with food vouchers and information. Captain Galdes also tried hard to get us a room for the night. Unfortunately, hotels for miles around were fully booked, but we really appreciate his efforts. The captain is a real gentleman. I am sure that he and his crew were also very tired, but they would not leave the airport before ensuring that all passengers were taken care of. The replacement crew, under Captain Antoine Camilleri, also faced a long journey to get to Stansted. Yet, they went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that our flight took off and was as comfortable as possible.
I'm sure everyone agrees that this was a difficult journey and spending the night in a cold airport is bound to dampen even the liveliest of humour. However, we were both very saddened to hear negative comments about Air Malta from a minority of passengers. I confess that initially I thought that the airline would transfer us from Gatwick to Stansted, as I am sure would happen in different circumstances. But this was not possible - coaches weren't operating due to adverse weather conditions, a problem Air Malta cannot be expected to solve and which would have required the co-operation of the Gatwick airport staff. If I could make a suggestion, however, it is for Air Malta to make wider use of social media, especially Twitter. This is an easy way of conveying updates and information. Granted, not everybody has a mobile phone, but most people do and most people are willing to share information. Gatwick staff weren't helpful at all in regards to which trains to catch and while this isn't Air Malta's problem, a few Twitter messages would've been helpful. We are certain that the airline did its best to communicate with us via the Gatwick people, but alas the people we had to deal with did not seem to care about customers. They would do well to take a leaf out of Air Malta's book. Once we reached Stansted, things improved thanks to the wonderful Captain Galdes and his crew.
Air Malta is a national treasure and the people who work so hard to ensure that everything goes smoothly deserve our support. I would like to wish a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year to the 2 crews, all the staff who helped in some way and fellow passengers.
Comments
Also agree wholeheartedly with the author. Air Malta delivers a far better service and customer care than any other airline i have travelled with and am not only referring to easyjet and Ryanair but also Alitalia and BA...Lufthansa comes close to be honest but still has something missing from our national airline.
All the airline needs to arrange certain routes and with the help of a collective effort, become again a pride of Malta
As an Air Malta frequent flyer, I couldn't agree more that they deliver far better service than the budget airlines, however if they don't address their pricing structure they will continue to lose customers. I have not flown with Air Malta for the last nine months as I simply cannot justify paying an additional £50 - £80 per head each round trip. We all are having to make our money stretch further and I don't see that changing. I couldn't be more disappointed to find myself flying with Sleazy Jet (no, that wasn't a typo), but am really left with no option, except Ryan Air out of Luton and that just ain't gonna happen !!
Merry Christmas to you all.
Isabelle, you are most fortunate to live in country served by Air Malta.
I am in Ireland. Today's Dublin-Malta flight with Ryanair was the last before Christmas (Ryanair reduced flights to Malta and jacked up prices this autumn). Yesterday at 8.47pm I received an email informing that the flight was cancelled, and I could ask for a refund or rebook online without extra charge, using a special link provided.
The next flight is not until Monday 27 December, so there went Christmas! I tried to rebook anyway, but could not do so without giving my credit card details and paying an extra 155 euro.
This morning (22 December) I managed to get to speak to an operator at the Ryanair call centre - she knew exactly what I was calling about before I told her. I was promised a refund, but am not holding my breath. Whatever, I am glad I booked, because by this morning the 27 December flight and the one after it, on 31 December, were full.
Dublin airport is operating normally today, with some some flight being delayed or cancelled only because of problems at the destination/origin airports.
Obviously, Ryanair cancelled the flight on the pretext of weather conditions to shunt off their passengers to flight in the coming week, where they probably had many unsold seats.
For this privelege, I am paying the equilvalent of what a business class seat with a regular airline (albeit involving a stop over) would have cost had I booked at the same time (early October).
We are subsidising Ryanair out of our tax euros; not only, but Air Malta cancelled its profitable route to Dublin so that Ryanair could have a monopoly.
