Malta’s Hotel and Restaurants Association has said it is determined to make a relative success of the upcoming summer tourist season in the wake of the announcement that the airport will reopen to all passenger flights on 15th July.

“During the later part of May, the MHRA was vocal in its lobbying with government for restaurants to open by the end of May and the airport to open on 15th June,” the MHRA said.

“The restaurants were allowed to open slightly before the end of May and the airport on the 1st July but limited to a number of destinations. During the past week, we have followed up our request to open to more countries given that the reported take up for July for the airports that were allowed to open was on the low side.”

“We are extremely pleased to note that our lobbying has been successful and Malta’s airport will now open to all countries. This is very good news and fills us with great determination to turn the situation around.”

“It’s going to be a difficult three months but we are certain that, pulling together, we can make what is an extremely difficult situation into one which, managed well, can have some reward.”

MHRA president Tony Zahra thanked Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli, Malta Tourism Authority chairman Gavin Gulia and Malta Tourism Authority CEO Johann Buttigieg for their support and said he hopes this latest piece of good news “will spur all the trade to get back to normality ASAP”.

On 1st July, Malta will open its airport to Spain, Italy, France, Poland, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Switzerland, Estonia, Denmark, Hungary, Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Czechia, Ireland, and Finland.

However, airports in Northern Italy, one unnamed region in France and one unnamed region in Spain will be excluded from the list.

On 15th July, the airport will reopen to passenger flights from all countries, providing a boost to the tourism industry, a major component of th Maltese economy.