Malta specialist Belleair Holidays has been bought by Alfendo Limited, the parent company of JTA Travel Group.
As part of the JTA family of brands, the tour operator will be run by senior JTA Travel Group executive Dave Green, who will become managing director of the Malta specialist, which announced its closure in October 2022.
Green previously held the role of joint MD of Belleair from 2014 to 2017 under previous owners Holiday Malta Company.
He said: “When we heard Nigel and Steve (Crownshield) had decided to close the business, we were determined this historic travel brand wouldn’t be allowed to bite the dust.
“Belleair is a brand agents have loved for over 40 years as the ‘go to’ operator for the Maltese Islands and beyond, we aim to bring that back, stronger than ever before.”
The acquisition has been completed and under its new owners the operator will have a new agent only, user friendly Belleair trade site from mid-May to take bookings. Agents will also be able to claim incentives through the JTA Rewards programme.
“We aim to make it easy for agents to promote what the Maltese Islands have to offer and will provide a brand new booking engine that agents can use to make the online booking experience effortless,” added Green, who said the islands were likely to be popular during next winter against the backdrop of rising UK costs.
The operator has also announced it will now launch other destinations including Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia and Turkey.
Former Belleair staff have also been taken back on to work for the brand under the new owners, including Fiona Morgan, who joins as specialist product manager and holds more than 20 years’ experience with the operator.
Green said: “Our aim is to recruit and retain experience and specialist knowledge and we plan to get Belleair Holidays firing on all cylinders very soon, so we can support our wonderful trade colleagues and partners once again.”
JTA Group chief exeutive Wayne Darrock said Belleair would operate as a standalone specialist in the group.
He added: “We are delighted to have added such an iconic brand as Belleair to our business. Belleair will operate as a separate entity to our other brands due to its specialist nature, we will still add the JTA dynamic culture to modernise and increase its product offering to all UK trade partners.”