KM Malta Airlines Replaces Air Malta

Air Malta had a shockingly good (and cheap!) business class product, I kinda hope this will be the same on KM. Upcharge can be as little as 30-50€, which is worth the usual perks alone, and on top of that food is absolutely awesome and crews very proactive with refills. I can't wrap my head around governments willingly pouring money into black holes called "national carriers" when there's plenty of other airlines willing to cover the market, but I guess if it means their taxpayers subsidize my journeys, why not 🙂

Also a small note about semantics: "Malta asked European Union" is a bit of a nonsense, since Malta is part of the EU so they would be asking themselves. You wouldn't say that New York asked United States for something, but rather that it asked the federal government or whatever institution. Same applies here, I assume the request went to EC (the executive body of the EU, equivalent of the US federal government).

The airline is a billboard for the island. It doesn't need to be profitable.

Will the food and presentation still be the same as it was? I'm guessing not much change there, so we will see. To be fair, for intra-European business class food, they were a bit above average, so if it ain't broke...

Lucky, as a frequent flyer blog, you’ve missed something interesting here.
The old Air Malta “Flypass” program died with Air Malta, but unlike when other airlines fail and the frequent flyers get nothing, Air Malta actually paid out all Flypass members (even those without status) for their miles at the ratio of 1 KMile = €0.0047c.
That means (very approximately) for every business class ticket you had miles for, you were paid out appro €200. Nothing wrong with that!
Unique in the world of ‘failed airlines’

Under European Union rules, the government cannot reimburse its losses indefinitely. This isn’t the Middle East.

New York asks United States for all sorts of things

Yeah, in Europe you have to copy/paste everything to a new legal entity to achieve the exact same thing, that’s why Europe is better than the Middle East

I don't get the government's strategy; it already has a joint venture with Ryanair, i.e. Malta Air.

@Lucky: Do you know anything about the possibility to earn/spend miles on KM Malta Airlines flights? For instance, Miles&More still shows that miles can be earned/spent on Air Malta, which is the now defunct airline …

It used to be great airline, but I didn't fly it recently. Still, had very good memories from their service and standard.

No, it's not. One good Ryanair sale makes far more for tourism than "flag carrier" does in a year. Most people don't have an idea that Air Malta exists, and that includes visitors to the island.

I happened to be on one of their last flights (28 March) and the service was excellent, both food and the crew.