The flight between Newark and Malta is not a typical route for a German airline. Up to three times a week this summer, however, it will run with the Lufthansa Airbus A350. This flight is actually a partnership with Viking Cruises, the first service departing from Newark yesterday.

The service uses the Airbus A350-900 operated by Lufthansa. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy flying

The first flight of a special service

Take off on July 30th from his home in Munich, the Airbus A350-900 D-AIXL registered as LH412 to Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey. This roughly eight-hour flight landed in Newark at 6:53 p.m. local time.

While these flights usually returned to Munich, or at least to the other Lufthansa hub in Frankfurt, it was instead intended for Luqa Airport on the small island state of Malta in the Mediterranean. Flight LH489 landed in Malta today, July 31, at 11:38 a.m. local time.

As mentioned earlier, this flight was arranged by Viking Cruises, who worked with Lufthansa to offer non-stop charter flights from Newark Liberty International Airport to Malta.

LH489The first flight was carried out by D-AIXL. Photo: RadarBox.com

Lufthansa New York-Malta flight plan

According to Lufthansa, the airline is chartered to make 12 direct flights from the US to Malta. At a rate of three per week, this would keep the service running through the month of August.

Here is the schedule for this particular service:

  • LH489 – Newark (EWR) 20:45 – Malta (MLA) 11: 25 + 1 – Airbus A350-900 – 08h40m
  • LH488 – Malta (MLA) 15:15 – Newark (EWR) 19:00 – Airbus A350-900 – 09h45m

When asked about the service at the beginning of May, a Lufthansa spokesman made the following statement:

“Lufthansa plans to offer a number of flights between New York (Newark Airport) and Malta this summer in collaboration with a major cruise line that will operate cruises in the Mediterranean.”

Lots of premieres this weekend! First direct flight from @EWAirport, NJ 🇺🇸 to Malta 🇲🇹 operated by @Lufthansa Per @VikingCruises. In total, Lufthansa will have 12 direct flights from the USA to Malta with our modern and efficient # A350 this summer. pic.twitter.com/vTeieNlsGt

– Lufthansa News (@lufthansaNews) July 31, 2021

Apparently, if you’re looking to take this shorter direct flight to Malta, you are out of luck unless you’ve booked the cruise package first. In fact, Lufthansa will only offer these flights to those booked on a Viking Ocean Cruise. Therefore, it looks like a standard route, including the time to connect at a European hub airport, would be closer to 11 hours than the roughly eight and a half hours that the direct flight offers.

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Viking cruises in Malta

Just last week, Viking celebrated its first post-pandemic sailing in the Mediterranean. According to Cruise Industry News, On July 23, the guests boarded the 930-passenger sister ships Viking Sea and Viking Venus in the Maltese capital Valletta.

“We are very happy to be back in the Mediterranean and to have a home port in Valletta. On behalf of the entire Viking family, we thank the Government of Malta for their support and partnership in developing these fantastic new voyages, ”- Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking, on Cruise Industry News.

According to Viking Cruises, the Maltese government relaxed the rules for international travelers arriving in June. The small nation now allows vaccinated Americans with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 vaccination cards to enter the country.

On the American side, the CDC explicitly classified Malta as “Level 1” or the lowest risk for COVID-19.

With these two important steps, tourists can now travel without being quarantined at their destination or on their return. These cruises will be even easier as Viking Cruises uses Lufthansa services for direct flights.

What do you think of this arrangement? Is it something that cruise lines should be doing more often? Let us know in the comments.

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