Review of Air Malta flight from Vienna to Luqa in Economy

introduction

Hi everyone, and welcome to this brand-new series of mine! This one will be covering a fun 10-day, 4-nation trip around Europe that I took last month. This series will consist of 5 reports on 3 airlines, 4 aircraft types, 2 cabins, passing through 6 different airports. Of the 3 airlines I flew, 2 were new airlines for me, including the one in this report: Air Malta!

I'll be providing a bit more background to the trip as it progresses, but for now I'm glad to have you here with me, and I hope you enjoy this report!

trip information

To keep things interesting, I'll be revealing this itinerary as it progresses. Here's where we stand with 3 reports published:

As this flight was booked under the same itinerary as the next one, I'll reveal the booking details in the next report.

the morning of departure

I headed to the airport around 8 AM, and lucked out by catching a Regional Express train from Wien Mitte to the airport, as opposed to the S7 which takes about twice as long.

As usual, the ride was uneventful, and I made it to the airport around 8:45.

vienna international airport (vie)

For the first time since the pandemic began, I'd be flying out of Terminal 2, which had re-opened just a couple of days before my flight.

Having checked-in online and only traveling with a carry-on, I headed straight through security. A new checkpoint had just been opened at Terminal 2, so the security staff wasn't used to the flow. It took a good 15 minutes until I was airside.

Terminal 2 had allegedly been under renovation during the pandemic, and its re-opening was being touted as offering a new experience for passengers. As such, I was very excited to see how it had changed. The duty-free seemed new, as did the ceiling outside the duty-free.

Unfortunately, that seems to be where they a.) decided that they had fixed enough or b.) ran out of money to fix the rest of the terminal, as the C gates were exactly the same as they were prior to the pandemic. I genuinely don't understand Vienna Airport, as they claim to be such a great airport, yet everything about it is just so mediocre. It reminds me a bit of the airline group that the hometown airline belongs to ?

The rotunda at the end of the concourse gave me some Newark vibes.

My flight would be departing from gate C35.

The gate area was quite empty, and I hung around there for 25 minutes until boarding began.

The C gates don't offer a great view for spotters, but I still managed to grab a shot of the aircraft that would fly me down to Malta. Doing the honors was 9H-AEQ, a February 2007-built Airbus A320-214. Apart from a brief wet-leased stint at Etihad from October 2007 to March 2008, she'd been wearing Air Malta's colors all her life.

boarding + initial impressions

Boarding was called right on time, and I made my way down the jetbridge.

A better look at the aircraft before stepping onboard.

I was greeted by a very friendly middle-aged purser and his younger female colleague and quickly found my window seat, 5A. I was surprised to see such a retro-looking cabin, and when I sat down I was reminded of the days when European airlines actually seemed to care about passenger comfort - these seats were comfy!!

Decent legroom.

The seatback pocket consisted of an inflight magazine (good to see those again!)…

…the safety card…

…and the food menu, although there was a problem with catering on this flight, so nothing could be purchased - more on that later.

Large tray table.

Slightly adjustable headrest.

And something I hadn't seen in a while - a channel flipper on the armrest. Hah! I don't have any headsets with a cord, though, so I don't know if anything was playing.

Cabin during boarding.

air malta 515 - vienna to malta

The loading and boarding took a bit of time, and once the doors were closed the captain came over the PA to welcome us onboard and announce a flight time of 2 hours and 10 minutes. I also scored an empty middle seat. Yay!

The jetbridge was release 5 minutes after our scheduled departure time, and pushed back right away.

Annoyingly, the windows on this bird were pretty dirty.

Taxiing past the eyesore that is Terminal 2.

While considerably newer, Terminal 3 is also a pretty ugly structure. Not a lot of departures at this hour.

Passing a Lauda Europe A320 which had just arrived from Catania.

Holding short of Runway 16 to let an Austrian A321 from Frankfurt land.

departure from vienna

Rolling takeoff.

Airborne.

Looking forward towards the Neusiedlersee.

Cabin after departure.

Takeoff video:

Neusiedlersee from another perspective.

mid-flight

The crew sprung into action very soon after departure, and I was thrilled to see that the TVs would be used to show our flight progress - awesome! I never thought I'd see that type of old-school airshow again, either ?

As mentioned above, for some reason there was no catering onboard this flight. The official excuse was for "technical reasons", though I'm not entire sure how that could be the case. Regardless, the crew was very apologetic, and to make up for it all non-alcoholic drinks were free. I decided to have a cup of Orange Juice.

I spent most of the flight looking out the window. Here we were over Central Croatia.

Overflying the Dinaric Alps over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Peruća Lake, Croatia.

Fantastic view of Split and the Dalmatian Coast - hope to visit someday!

Making our way across the Adriatic Sea, with some idyllic Croatian islands below ?

As we overflew the Adriatic Sea, I paid a visit to the lavatory and took a little walk around the cabin. The lavatory was clean, and so was the rest of the aircraft. As you can see, we had a pretty light load.

Once back at my seat, I started to read the inflight magazine, which provided some fascinating insights on lesser-known parts of Malta. Great to know for my next visit!

Passing Manfredonia, Italy.

The further south we flew, the cloudier the weather got, and by the time we reached Sicily there was nothing to see below.

Well, almost nothing… hi, Mt. Etna! ?

arrival into malta

Once we were due west of Catania, the captain came back over the PA to announce that we'd commenced our descent towards Malta, and we'd be landing in around 25 minutes. The weather was reported to be cloudy with a low ceiling. That's what I would have expected from my final destination, and certainly not Malta! ??

Not much to see during our descent.

First views of Malta.

Over the airport.

Gorgeously smooth touchdown on Runway 13 at 1:05 PM, 10 minutes late, after a flying time of 2 hours and 3 minutes.

Taxiing off the runway.

Landing video. Skip to 5:14 to see how smooth our touchdown was!

Pulling into our remote stand next to a Ryanair Malta Air 737-800 that had arrived from Cologne.

One final view of my seat…

…and of the aircraft…

…before heading inside to catch my connecting flight.

routing + conclusion

Once inside the terminal, it took a lot of self-discipline to follow the signs for "Connecting Flights" rather than just exiting and enjoying Malta for a few days, but I had one more flight that day to a destination that you'll find out about in the next series ? thanks for reading this report, and I hope to see you right back here in a couple of days for part 2!