Air Malta has disposed of its British Aerospace Avroliner RJ aircraft fleet. Over the last few weeks, the airline sold one RJ85 and one RJ70 to an Italian company, one RJ70 to a Swedish airline, and another RJ70 to a Bulgarian company. The other three aircraft had been sold earlier to Middle East clients. Two of the RJ70s just sold will be converted for VIP use.

The RJs had been purchased between late 1994 and early 1996 to be utilised either in the Air Malta fleet or by its Italian associated company AzzurraAir, which had, at one time, also taken over the Air Malta aircraft. After AzzurraAir folded, the aircraft were grounded for some time, but were then mostly leased to regional airlines in Europe.

The RJ aircraft had been sold to a consortium of four banks in September 2002 and then leased back by Air Malta, which had repurchase option rights. Rather than continue leasing the aircraft until their expiry dates in May next year, Air Malta decided to repurchase the aircraft and resell them.

Commenting on the sale of the latest batch of aircraft, Air Malta chairman Lawrence Zammit said, “This is excellent news for us. Thanks to the incessant efforts of our Air Malta team, we have managed to sell our RJ fleet and we are now in a better position to continue in our efforts and concentrate on revenue-enhancement projects that are aimed to return Air Malta into profitability.”