The Malta Aviation Conference and Expo, a B2B and B2C aviation networking event, held in Malta for the first time, this year attracted around 350 delegates. With educational and inspiring keynote speakers and an expo hall packed with exhibitors, this was the first of its kind to be organised in Malta and truly an astounding success.
"We are truly elated with what we have achieved for the first ever aviation conference and expo organised in Malta. With the aviation industry growing at such a steady pace, Malta has established itself as an aviation cluster and MACE positioned itself to be the perfect opportunity for industry players, professionals, as well as policy-makers to engage in discussions, partnerships and share best practices," said Stanley Bugeja, Jonathan Dalli and Joshua Zammit, founder partners. "MACE has truly proved to be of great value to the aviation community and it is thanks to our main sponsor, Transport Malta and other sponsors that believed in the conference and expo from the beginning, that we have managed to achieve this milestone, which motivates us in hosting delegates again for the yearly MACE in 2020," they concluded.
The conference included over 40 local and international speakers including the Prime Minister Dr Joseph Muscat; the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, Dr Ian Borg; the director general for Civil Aviation, Transport Malta, Capt. Charles Pace; the director general for Eurocontrol, Eamonn Brennan; former NASA scientist, Dr Anita Sengupta; the director of Public Relations of Ryanair, Diarmuid Ó Conghaile and the executive chairman of Knighthood Capital Partners and former chief Executive officer of Etihad Aviation Group James Hogan.
Speaking during the conference, Prime Minister Muscat said: "Government is committed to making aviation one of the key sectors in Malta's economy. The aviation industry in Malta has been growing at a very fast pace, contributing to our growth. The strengths we have developed led us to explore the possibility of exploring a new niche - aircraft leasing.
"This industry has grown four-fold in the last 20 years, spurred by a commercial airline strategy, to diversify their aircraft portfolio by having both owned and leased aircraft. Over the past year or so we have been working on putting in place the infrastructure required for our foray into this sector. It will not be an easy task as there are currently two very good jurisdictions which almost have a stronghold on this sector but we are confident that Malta can carve out its own share in this growing sector.
"I'm really excited about this prospect and I think we can become a jurisdiction of choice worldwide when it comes to aircraft leasing and slowly but surely, I think we can really erode into the market share of the other two jurisdictions and play a major role. Our targets for the industry are ambitious, but also very realistic. We hope to be able to launch this project shortly," he concluded.
The event, held under the patronage of European Business Aviation Association as part of their Expanding Horizons campaign and Malta Business Aviation Association, also included an expo hall with over 15 exhibitors.
MACE was founded by DC Aviation Group, The Concept Stadium and Novargo.
For more information and to register your interest for MACE 2020 visit https://mace.aero/