Malta plans to have 400 aircraft flying the Malta flag by the end of the year, Minister Ian Borg said today.
“315 aircraft, 35 Air Operator Certificates (AOC), 9 aircraft maintenance organisations and 7 aircraft maintenance training and examination organisations, 5 cabin crew training organisations and another 5 for the training of pilots. Could our country dream of these figures five years ago? Today we have more than doubled the number of aircraft registered in our country since 2012 and as Minister responsible for the aviation industry, I will keep on working to achieve more and more results in this sector,” the Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects minister said when visiting Transport Malta offices, where he presented SmartLynx with their Air Operator Certificate.
Borg explained how these achievements are thanks to the Civil Aviation Directorate within Transport Malta, an Authority that has worked, continues to work and will continue to work hard towards more results in aviation. He said that a lot of work is underway on the aspect of connectivity, one of the most important aspects for an island state with an island economy.
“Today we are here witnessing the hard work being carried out to continue strengthening our connectivity. Today we are here because we can continue seeing growth in the aviation sector, another pillar of the economy which contributes to 2.5% of our country’s Gross Domestic Product. The numbers I mentioned are achievements. But our vision spreads wider than this. We want to turn the 315 aircraft to 400 this year, and the 35 AOCs to 40. This is our plan,” said Minister Borg.
He said recently the authority reached a number of agreements with Japan, South Korea, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and said that these countries have joined a long list of other countries which are proud to have agreements with our country. The minister added that work is also currently underway towards agreements with South America as well and the strengthening of relationships with several countries in this sector, including Brazil.
“This success did not happen on its own. These results have been achieved because we have the Aviation Directorate within Transport Malta focused on this sector and a Directorate which works day after day to build relationships with operators and other countries, to strengthen existing relationships. We have the authority itself, Transport Malta that has worked so that today Malta is associated with a flag renowned for service, efficiency, security and flexibility. That is why we are continuously drawing in more investment and interest. We continue to work towards more achievements that our country hadn’t dreamt of up to a few years ago. We have never rested on our laurels and we are definitely not going to start doing that now,” said the Hon. Borg, and added that almost every week he receives the good news that a business would like to start operating from our country.
“After all this is a sector that creates more than 3,200 jobs, specialised jobs, and that is also why we will continue working to see the aviation industry grow, towards more investment, towards more connectivity and towards more jobs. I remain committed to continue witnessing more work, more agreements and more investment coming to our country,” concluded the Hon. Borg while thanking SmartLynx for their faith in the Authority and the Directorate and thanking the same Authority and Directorate for the work they do every day.