Matthias A. Merzhäuser

Comlux Aviation, a leading operator of Airbus corporate jet aircraft, has established a Malta subsidiary called Comlux Aviation Malta with, so far, one Airbus A319 carrying Maltese registration 9H-AFK. With this move Comlux wants to make an EU-registered VVIP charter service available to its customers, while headquarters and main operation are in Switzerland. A subsidiary in Kazakhstan targets Asian and CIS markets.

Comlux’ fleet currently consists of the Malta-registered Airbus A319CJ (corporate jet) and two Swiss-registered Airbus A318s (the shortest model of the A320 series), while four other A318s (in the so-called ‘Elite’ version) are still to be delivered. Actually, Comlux was launch customer for this A318 version and also has other top-of-the range (though not airliner-based) business jets.

The A319 of Comlux Malta was delivered from the Airbus Hamburg plant in late 2005 to a so-called competition centre. New aircraft from Airbus (or Boeing) intended for outfitting with a special VVIP interior are not fitted at the normal production lines but by contractors specialised in such projects. Through a subsidiary, Comlux actually is a shareholder in the Airbus Corporate Jet Completion Centre in Toulouse. After forming part of the Kazakhstan’s government fleet, the jet returned to Comlux this summer.

While Air Malta’s A319s carry 141 passengers, and those of Easyjet and Germanwings 156, the Comlux jet provides 19 people with a luxurious interior including a conference room and bedroom and a range of 9100 kms. Customers in the VVIP charter field can include anything from corporations operating globally to governments, to showbiz stars, to Russian tycoons. When all aircraft are delivered, Comlux Aviation will be the world’s largest Airbus A318Elite operator.

Comlux’s European offices are in Zurich, Moscow, Monaco and Birkirkara.

Registration development chances for Malta

The set up of Comlux Malta however does not necessarily mean origin or destination traffic, as aircraft operate globally. Still, it is a fact that business jet flights to MIA has picked up in recent years due to general business travel as well as meetings/conference traffic. SmartCity might, in the future, mean additional traffic.

Corporate owners, particularly in the mid-size and smaller jet field, and basically all charter carriers, have their flight operation/firm and aircraft registered in their EU home country. But some large global corporations and super-rich private persons have aircraft registrations in three particular tax havens. For example, Volkswagen (partly State-owned through federal state Lower Saxony) has its single A319CJ registered not in Germany, but the Cayman Islands, just like its fleet of Dassault Falcon Jets. The two other popular places of such registration for business aircraft / owner companies are Aruba and the Bermudas.

But the Bermudas are also present in the field of registrations of very ordinary passenger airliners of renowned carriers: Aeroflot’s Boeing and Airbus fleet is registered there, as are those of FSU firms Transaero, S7 Siberia Airlines, KD (Kaliningrad) Avia, Air Bridge Cargo, Vladivostok Avia, Ural Airlines, Orenburg Airlines, Uzbekistan Airways, Azerbaijan Airlines and others, as well as aircraft from the Gulf area.

EU member State Ireland has been very successful in the aircraft-leasing business, which does not include business jets. Even Peregrine, the leasing firm set up by Air Malta through which it leased the Avroliners to AzzurrAir, was registered there. Today, Italian carriers Air One, Alitalia, Meridiana, Windjet, MyAir and Livingston all operate with Irish-registered aircraft.

Since the last legislature, starting from zero, Malta positioned itself as a world leader in e-gambling registrations.

Ship registrations had preceded this. So what about aircraft leasing or ownership companies? One could combine an EU jurisdiction with low taxes, while providing a better image than offshore tax havens.