Carfield

London Southend Airport has been relatively aggressive in getting new operators, and I was really curious when Air Malta announced daily service to London Southend Airport in February 2018. What made the new service more interesting was the routing. Two of the daily flights will stop at Cagliari Elmas Airport, and two of the daily flights will stop at Catania-Fontanarossa International Airport, and the rest will go nonstop. I am personally more interested in the flights that has a stopover in these Italian airports, so using my Chase points, I booked a roundtrip business class ticket between London Southend and Malta, with the outbound stopping at Cagliari and return stopping at Catania. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to leave the aircraft during the stop at these Italian airports, but it still makes the flights more interesting to fly. Interestingly, all four flights are operated by this special painted A320 “Valletta European Capital of Culture 2018,” 9H-AEO, which is operated by this small carrier called Malta Med Air, despite the return flight was flown two months later. Its business class is fairly typical of European airlines these days with basically a blocked middle seat and I got a hot meal on the longer segment, but no choice of main course. The service was decent and the purser served me at all segments. Since Air Malta went BOB in economy, the F/As were not particularly busy. However, they worked all four segments so my expectation was low. But in general, they left me alone most of the time, as I was the only business class passenger in three out of four segments, but they always asked me if I wanted something else before clearing the glasses and plates.

August 19, 2018
KM 186 MLA-CAG Lv0630 Arr0745 Airbus A320-200 9H-AEO

Full album link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Carfield76/library/Summer%202018/AirMaltaClubClass

I arrived at Malta International Airport around two and a half hours prior to departure, and the airport was still on the quiet side, despite there was a morning bank of flights to Europe.


Air Malta ticket counter


There is a priority check-in line for Air Malta’s Club Class passengers – Counter 13.


The agent was friendly and my bags were checked all the way to London Southend, and I received an invitation to the sole lounge at Malta. There was a priority security line and I went through it quickly.

Club Valetta
You need to take an elevator to go to the lounge, which created quite a bottle neck at peak hours, but for 5am, it was okay.


The lounge was huge but given every single airline have to send their premium and elite passengers here, it became crowded quickly. I believe that there is a secret VIP section for Emirates’ first class passengers.







Breakfast spread






Bottled waters – well stocked


Coffee machine


The most special part of this lounge is a lovely outdoor terrace and it was pretty nice to sit there in these cool early morning hours. Yes, you can smoke there too.






Tarmac view
Air Malta’s first A320NEO



Since I am heading to UK and through passengers have to stay on board, we went through our passport check here. I got an exit stamp here and if you are only going to Italy, it will just be a cursory check. For unknown reasons, boarding was delayed till 6:06am.

The bus ride was very long, as we traveled all the way to the old terminal building, where our plane was parked overnight.







Business class cabin consists of only one row this morning and this leg was the only flight that there was a second passenger in the business class cabin.




Legroom


A pre-takeoff beverage of juice or water was offered.


Then there were local newspapers.


Safely card


Inflight Magazine and Buy on Board Menu


Door was closed at 6:42am and then we pushed back at 6:45am.

We took off from R/W23 at 6:51am.



Flying time was fifty-seven minutes with a cruising altitude of 34,000 feet. I was not sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised that a continental breakfast was offered. Economy class cabin got the buy-on-board cart too.

The continental breakfast has a fruit plate with strawberry yogurt. It will be nice to have a muffin or pastry, but this is better than nothing.




Tea


Descent soon began at 7:27am.



We landed on R/W32 at 7:48am.


We parked at spot 11 a few minutes later, and as I said earlier, passengers continuing to London Southend must stay on board during the stopover. There was a full cleaning crews tidying up the cabin.

I took the opportunities for a few cabin’s shots.





Thankfully it was not the slim seats.



Row 1


Seat 1A


KM 186 CAG-SEN Lv0835 Arr1005

The ground crews really tried to speed up the turnover to catch up with the late start.
The load was on the light side helped and boarding was completed by 8:26am.
We pushed back at 8:29am, six minutes early.







We took off from R/W32 at 8:38am for the two hours and ten minutes flight to Southend.




Our routing took us over Sorgano and Ajaccio before reaching 38,000feet, and then we passed the cities of Nice, Emarun, Sully, Couches-Chablis, Provnir, Meaux, Boves, Outreau, Dover, Southminister and then onto Southend Airport.




I was offered a beverage immediately, while the purser heated up the breakfast.


Breakfast was served thirty minutes after takeoff. It was a full hot breakfast service but there was no choice of main course.



Description of the breakfast:
Main Course – Mushroom Omelette, sautéed potatoes, chicken sausage, and grilled herb tomato, fruit – watermelon, melon, cantaloupe & kiwi, cheese – cheddar, camembert, & milk with grape, strawberry yogurt, and breads – croissant and soft French roll












Seat in recline position


Adjustable headrest


Descent soon began at 9:14am, London’s local time.


We landed on R/W23 at 9:48am and we parked at Stand 7 four minutes later.








View from Holiday Inn Southend


We were being held in the plane for a few minutes, as they needed to clear all the arriving passengers on the FlyBe ATR72 first. The immigration hall was okay but the e-passport channel was closed during the weekends. However the immigration officers were all pretty friendly, so I made it through immigration in no time. It literally took them twelve minutes to unload the bags.

Carfield

October 4, 2018; Thursday
KM 185 SEN-CTA Lv1035 Arr1450 Airbus A320-200 9H-AEO

London Southend is an easy airport to deal with but it also means that they have less facilities like kiosks to speed up the check in experience. The agents were unfamiliar in dealing with priority passengers. You will notice that there are supposedly three different lines but there was only one single queue available.



It took a bit for them to process all the passengers and my bags were not tagged with priority labels. The agent was never aware of my cabin class. She asked “did I pay for my two check in bags?” And I told her that I was flying business class. Still the agent did not tell me that I had access to the sole lounge in the airport – SKYLIFE lounge.


Thankfully I asked the lounge agent on my last visit. The agent was not rude or anything, but since they worked for all the airlines flying in and out of the airport, they were not aware of these issues. I doubt that she realizes that Air Malta has a business class cabin.




Security was a bit hectic, as they decided to only keep two lanes opened after the early morning rush.

The weather was pretty bad this morning with thick fogs covering the field. I saw from flightradar24 that many planes circled around the airport, including my flight, waiting for the fogs to life up. One Easyjet flight had to be diverted to Birmingham, but thankfully my flight eventually landed around 10:37am.

I took the time to stay at the Skyline Lounge, during the delay which is quite nice with your usual continental breakfast spread. The agents were a bit clumsy in refilling the food and the coffee machine was out of service. There was the pancake making machines and in general, it was a nice place to wait for your flight especially given everyone’s flights were delayed.

Entrance right after you exit from security checkpoint








Seating area








Buffet






Gate 4


Thankfully the weather cleared up a little bit and boarding began at 10:53am, but you were not allowed to board the plane till 11:09am. They made everyone waited inside the corridor. Thankfully I had my jacket.








Tarmac view


I was given a seat at 2A, and according to agent, the seat was computer generated and I could not change it. Anyway, I was the only passenger again and they actually blocked two rows of seats for me.


I was offered a juice again, along with pillow and blanket (still wrapped in plastic to prove that it was cleaned).



Fogs were gone


Door was closed late at 11:39am because they were having issues with the headcount. The flight was much busier with 140 passengers in economy and one passenger in business.

We finally pushed back at 11:42am and took off from R/W23 at 11:47am.




Seat pitch


Tray Table



Routing today took us towards Canvey Island, Hastings, and Dieppe, before reaching our crusing altitude of 37,000feet. Then we passed Toussus-Le-Noble, Versailles, Montargis, Saint-Fargeau, Varzy, Le Creusot, Tournus, Annecy, Ligure, Messina, Reggio Calabria, and then towards Catania.




Beverage


Lunch was served next with no choice of main course. There was no description because the purser removed all the foil and plastic wrap.

Starter – smoked salmon, Main Course – Stir-fried chicken with teriyaki sauce, steamed rice with sesame seed, and steamed vegetables, breads – soft white & wheat rolls, cheese with olive (2 kinds), and dessert – Apple crumble



Smoked Salmon



Breads










After lunch service, the F/A checked on me and made sure my coke light was refilled.




Cabin Shot






How tray table was deployed




Soon we began our approach towards Catania but due to weather, we were once again placed on a holding position.




Thankfully we were finally released from the hold at 3:41pm local time.

We landed on R/W26 at 3:53pm.



There were not many photos here at Catania because of the heavy rain.

But I took more cabin shot!




KM 185 CTA-MLA Lv1535 Arr1615 Airbus A320-200 9H-AEO

Weather cleared a bit, as boarding was resumed at 4:28pm. It was a pretty full flight to Catania but business class remained empty, except me. The crews offered me some tea and coffee while in the ground, but I declined.




We pushed back at 4:46pm and took off from R/W08 at 4:58pm for the short thirty minutes flight towards Malta.





There was no cabin service during this short flight and the F/As stayed seated for the whole flight.
Thankfully there was not much turbulence despite the unsettled weather.

Approaching Malta





We landed on R/W13 at 5:28pm and parked at spot 14 four minutes later.





Last look at 9H-AEO





Formalities were simple here at Malta and the bags were already waiting for me, when I arrived at the baggage claim area.

In conclusion, it was an interesting experience, and since little was written about Air Malta, I hope this trip report will help out some future customers.

Thanks for reading!
Carfield

enviroian

great report Carfield! Thank you

hockeyinsider

The lounge looks halfway decent. I wonder what kind of ice that is in the refrigerator.

I notice you didn't drink on the plane. Was wine not offered?

The meal looks better than what Delta offers in domestic first-class on flights much longer than Malta–London.

What other airlines fly out of London–Southend? I confess that I'm unfamiliar with this airport. Is it even in London?

pjs

Interesting report. I grew up in Southend and moved away in 1982 at age 11. We never flew out of Southend in those days (I think it was just charters back then). Did you do anything in town while there (not that there's much to do).

andreirublev

This needs a gallery placard titled, "Man Overcome with Grief at Airport"

Eastbay1K

I'd hate to see what the non luxury hand wipe looks like!

T8191

Really nice and informative report ^

MLA is one of our favourite destinations, but for us it's much easier to use BA from LGW.

shoven

Looks like a decent alternative to the main London Airports, the lounge in Malta looks half decent also. Also curious to know what other drinks were on offer during the flight.

Bretteee

The lounge in Valetta is small and can be very busy. Has not changed in 15 years. However the Southend blue canopies in the UK looks like a brothel. LOL.

T8191

Not that small, and certainly changed substantially between 2014 and 2018. Not to mention the new [post-2014] and large outside Terrace.

no2blues

Interesting report. Unfortunately, although I am an Essex boy, we live the wrong side of London these days to be able to use Southend.

.... not sure I'd classify Southminster as a city though (I grew up a few miles away)

Carfield

Sorry I did not check the comment section...
I did not drink on these flights but wines and alcohol are offered.
Easyjet, Ryanair, and Flybe operate a decent amount of flights from Southend. I think Adria Airways is flying to Southend too.

Carfield