KM Malta Airlines

Is KM Malta Airlines safe?

Yes. KM Malta Airlines has the record of the airline it replaced, and that record is clean: no fatal accident and no aircraft lost in more than 50 years of Maltese national airline flying. It flies eight young Airbus A320neos under EU safety rules and passed the IATA safety audit. We score it 89, level with Aegean Airlines.

The catch is size. With eight aircraft, a clean record means less than it would at a large airline, and the events that do appear, oil fumes in a cockpit and a crew that turned back over a training rule, show the ordinary problems a small operation has to manage.

Air Malta and KM Malta: one airline

Air Malta flew from 1973 until 30 March 2024. After the European Commission refused the Maltese government's request to inject about 290 million euros, the state closed it and set up KM Malta Airlines, which flew its first flights on 31 March 2024. The new company kept the eight Airbus jets, the KM flight code and most of the workforce, re-employed on new contracts.

Because passengers still fly the same aircraft with largely the same crews and code, we count Air Malta's history as KM Malta's. That history is short on drama. The Aviation Safety Network lists no fatal accident in 51 years. Bombs in the luggage of a leased Boeing 737 exploded during unloading at Cairo in 1981, injuring four ground staff, and a 737 was hijacked to Cologne in 1997, both without deaths and both unlawful interference, which we do not count as accidents. The one ordinary accident, an A320 damaged while taxiing at Malta in January 2004, falls outside our 20-year window.

What has gone wrong recently?

Nothing serious, but three events are worth knowing.

• November 2022, Malta. Shortly after take-off for Vienna, an Air Malta A320 filled with a burnt-oil smell; the pilots put on oxygen masks and returned. Malta's Bureau of Air Accidents Investigation rated it a serious incident and found, in a report three years later, that a failed bearing seal in one engine had let oil into the air supply.
• September 2023, Geneva. An A320 lost its autopilot and automation after departure and returned. It took off again two hours later with the same passengers, lost automation again and came back a second time; the flight was cancelled.
• April 2026, Malta to Paris. A KM Malta A320neo had levelled off at cruise when the captain realised the first officer was still in training and needed a training captain on board. The crew turned back. The airline said the crew make-up did not meet its own rules. Nobody was at risk, but it was a lapse in crew planning.

How strong is the oversight?

KM Malta holds a Maltese air operator certificate, supervised by Transport Malta's Civil Aviation Directorate under the same EASA rules as every EU airline. Malta is in the FAA's Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary, and KM Malta is an IATA member, which requires the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit. Malta's investigation bureau does publish final reports, though not quickly: the 2022 fumes case closed in November 2025. We score oversight 90, the usual level for an EU airline with IOSA.

What does KM Malta fly?

Only the Airbus A320neo, with LEAP engines. When ch-aviation named it Europe's youngest airline fleet in 2025, the eight aircraft averaged 3.36 years. The older A320s that Air Malta still flew in 2023 have left the fleet.

Flying KM Malta: what to know

Malta International Airport is the airline's only base and the island's only airport. On windy days landings can be bumpy, and if the runway closes, flights divert to Sicily. Most routes go to large, well-equipped airports such as Heathrow, Paris, Munich and Rome.

The exception is Tel Aviv, added twice a week from 27 May 2026 after Air Malta dropped it in 2023 over security concerns. In late 2026 EASA kept conflict-zone bulletins for neighbouring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and flights to Israel can be cancelled at short notice. If you book that route, keep plans flexible and check the airline's notices before you leave for the airport.

How we scored it

The accident record (92) is the strongest factor: no fatal accident or lost aircraft in more than 50 years, held below the top band only by the small fleet. The young A320neo fleet (93) and EU oversight with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary (90) follow. Incidents (82) and the island base with one conflict-zone route (82) cost a few points. For a nearby comparison, see Croatia Airlines.