KM Officially Announce New Fleet

Found this on the Air Malta website:
The choice between Airbus and Boeing was not an easy one, particularly because both aircraft manufacturers as well as the engine manufacturers, made very competitive and aggressive offers. However, the overall benefits and economic results of the ILFC/Airbus/CFM package proved to be the most commercially advantageous for Air Malta, and the final decision by Air Malta’s Management and Board of Directors was based on this overall package.

The selection of Airbus was the outcome of an intensive and detailed aircraft evaluation study, which was conducted by an inter-departmental team of about 30 senior officials directed by a task force. The studies started from a clean sheet and included long-term traffic forecasts, performance studies of various aircraft (payload, range and fuel burn), extensive research of alternative cabin layouts (seats, galleys and toilets), seasonal scheduling by route, and economic projections. The internal Air Malta studies were confirmed by an independent study by Aircraft Leasing and Management, a prominent aviation consultant, while a health check was conducted by the external auditors.

The currently anticipated fleet will consist of five A320s and seven A319s though Air Malta retained the flexibility to change some of the future aircraft deliveries from one type to the other. Moreover Air Malta has retained the right to take delivery of the A321 at some future date.

The A320-200 will be configured at 168 seats while the A319-100 will be configured at 141 seats. However Air Malta will retain its popular four-abreast Club Class arrangement in the forward part of the cabin. The new seat layout will also provide enhanced comfort through a 33-inch pitch in the Club Class section.

The engines installed on the aircraft will come from CFM, an international consortium made up of America’s General Electric and France’s Snecma. The engines enable Air Malta to comply with the very latest noise regulations, including potential Stage 1V ICAO rules even though these are, strictly speaking, not applicable to existing designs. The aircraft will be environmentally friendly, in terms of reduced emissions.

When the new aircraft are fully inducted into the fleet, Air Malta will have a one-type fleet of aircraft, thus providing substantial inherent economies in crew certification and training, reduced aircraft and engine spares inventories, and better economies of scale in the production departments such as engineering, flight operations, flight services and ground operations.

Theres more at http://www.airmalta.com/newfleet.htm though above is the main bits I picked out.So its official,Air Malta will have an all Airbus fleet.Still waiting for the new c/s!