Air Malta will end its scheduled flights to the Gulf region on September 10 and close its office in Dubai, the airline announced.

The airline said it would be represented by its General Sales Agents in the Gulf states.

These are Dnata in Dubai, Sultan Bin Yousef & Sons in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, SNTTA in Sharjah, Shorouk Travel in Kuwait, Kanoo Travel in Bahrain and United Tours and Travel in Qatar.

"Developments in the region, coupled with the route's costly operation due to crew layovers and direct on-line competition, has made this route unsustainable for the national carrier," the airline's area manager for Gulf, Ray Borg, said in a statement

"Air Malta has always considered one of its strong survival points as being the ability to determine when to enter and when to exit from a market.

"In line with Air Malta's commitment to support the tourism and communications sectors of Malta's economy, the slots released by the closure of its route to Dubai will be diverted to support capacity demands in other expanding areas such as the Scandinavian region."

Borg said the airline will honour all existing ticket reservations and re-route passengers on the best alternative flight available.