Maltese national carrier Air Malta will launch direct flights to Ukraine next year, Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca announced on Oct. 17 during her official visit to Ukraine.
The airlines added Kyiv to its new destinations for the summer 2018 schedule, which starts on March 26.
Coleiro Preca arrived in Kyiv on Oct. 17 to meet with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and attend the Ukrainian-Maltese business forum.
“The presence in Ukraine of a strong and diverse trade delegation from Malta shows just how determined the Maltese authorities and businesses are to pursue closer collaboration between our authorities and business communities, to ensure that we grow and prosper together,” Coleiro Preca said.
Poroshenko said talks were continuing on opening a logistics center for Antonov, the Ukrainian state aircraft manufacturer, in Malta, a small island nation of 436,000 people located between the Italian island of Sicily and Northern Africa. Antonov exports to Africa and wishes to take advantage of the European state’s proximity to the continent.
The project was first discussed during Poroshenko’s visit to the Maltese capital Valetta in May.
“We concluded that the most optimal place to establish a hub for (the Antonov state enterprise) spare parts provision and maintenance may be Malta,” Poroshenko’s press service quoted him as saying.
