1972
The first cars
Swift opens in St Paul's Bay with a small fleet, serving the first wave of visitors arriving by sea and the newly expanded Luqa airport.
Our story
Fifty years of handing
Fifty years of handing
over keys.
Swift started in 1972 with a handful of cars and a telephone in St Paul's Bay. Three generations later we're still in the same town, still answering that phone ourselves.
1972
Est. St Paul's Bay
Who we are
A small company that stayed small on purpose.
We could have grown into a desk at the airport with a queue in front of it. We chose not to. Staying small is what lets us meet every arrival in person, remember returning customers by name, and make a decision about a scratched bumper in ten seconds rather than ten days.
It also means we can do the thing the big operators can't afford to: put full insurance in the price and stop selling waivers at the counter. Our margin is thinner. Our reviews are better. That trade has kept us going for half a century.
52
Years renting cars in Malta
3
Generations of the same family
4.6
Average Google rating
How we work
Four rules we don't break
One price, quoted in writing
Whatever we tell you at the start is what you pay at the end. No fuel-service charges invented on return, no "premium location" surcharge, no cleaning fee for sand in the footwell.
Insurance is not an upsell
Full comprehensive cover with zero excess is in every rate. We don't hold a deposit against damage, and we don't want you spending your first evening reading a policy document.
A person answers, not a menu
There's no call centre and no ticket number. Ring the number on your agreement at three in the morning and you'll get someone who can actually send a car.
The right car, not the biggest one
If two of you are staying in Valletta, we'll tell you to take the small one. Village streets here were laid out for carts, and a wide car turns a nice holiday into a stressful one.
Milestones
A long time on a small island
1990s
Delivery, everywhere
Rather than build an airport desk, we start driving cars to arrivals and hotel lobbies ourselves — the practice the whole business is now built around.
2000s
The excess goes
After too many holidays soured by damage disputes, we drop the excess entirely and fold comprehensive cover into every rate. It has stayed that way since.
Today
Same office, same family
Open around the clock, every day of the year, with a fleet kept deliberately modest and a 4.6 rating from nearly a hundred reviewers.
Before you arrive
Driving in Malta,
Driving in Malta,
honestly described.
It's a wonderful place to have a car and a slightly alarming place to drive one. A few things worth knowing before you turn the key.
- Drive on the left. A British legacy — roundabouts go clockwise and the first junction always feels strange.
- Nothing is far. The island is 27 km long. Anywhere is under an hour, so there's no need for a big engine.
- Parking is the real sport. In Valletta and Sliema, park once and walk. A small car is worth its weight here.
- Local driving is assertive. Lane discipline is a suggestion. Leave a gap, don't take it personally.
- Country lanes bite. Rubble walls sit close and surfaces vary — which is exactly why our cover includes undercarriage and tyres.
- Take the car to Gozo. Twenty-five minutes on the ferry from Ċirkewwa, and a completely different pace of island.
Come and see
Fifty years of practice.
Fifty years of practice.
One very easy handover.
Send us your dates and flight number and we'll do the rest — including being at arrivals before you've collected your bags.