They tried. But did they succeed? The jury is out on whether Ryanair’s latest marketing stunt has hit the mark or not as the Irish airline tried its hand with a social media post in Maltese, much to the amusement of many locals.
One thing it definitely succeeded in, was to get people talking about it, in Maltese and English.
On Thursday the low-cost airline known for its many additional costs, and equally famous for its acerbic sense of humour and playful PR stunts, jokingly posted on Facebook that it will not charge passengers for applauding when the plane lands. “For now.”
However, the airline decided to take its marketing gimmick one step further by posting it in Maltese, writing: “M’hemm l-ebda ħlas biex tfaħħar meta l-ajruplan jinżel. Għalissa.”
While the post is not grammatically incorrect, many pointed out that it was too artificial, and certainly did not reflect true colloquial Maltese.
“Is the translator drunk?” one commentator remarked.
Another remarked: “Horrible Maltese. It’s evident someone is using Google Translate.”
One person quipped Ryanair gets a 7 in O’Level Maltese while another suggested that rather than adding a fee for applause, they should consider paying “for a Maltese proofreader before posting in Maltese”.
This is not the first time that Ryanair has posted in Maltese.
Earlier this week, the airline took a dig at passengers who complain about the increase in baggage fees by posting that “Il-bagalji emozzjonali jiswew iżjed” which translates, correctly, to “emotional baggage costs more”. Followed by a kiss emoji.
Ryanair has a significant presence in Malta, dominating the flight market, offering nearly half of all scheduled flight seats. In May, it bought the government’s golden share in Malta Air in line with pre-contractual agreements signed at the time of the airline’s launch in 2019.