The Malta International Airshow will kick off this weekend, the seventeenth time to date. The afternoon out has always been hugely popular with thousands of Maltese families and aircraft enthusiasts making the most of the spectacle.
This year, the show will be held within the grounds of the MIA and this is a wise decision. The venue allows for a fantastic static display of aircraft, merchandise stands as well as parking.
The line up will not disappoint with the AFM being joined by other air forces from around the world in providing a fantastic display over Luqa. There will also be a display put on by the renowned Breitling Jet Team.
In the past, the show has been held over Bugibba and Sliema, amongst others, but the most successful ones have always been held within the MIA grounds.
The event is not only a day out for Maltese people, but also attracts tourists and aero enthusiasts from overseas. The organisers have also put on a shuttle bus service from Valletta’s City Gate which should reduce the traffic squeeze and will also cater for tourists who are not independently mobile.
However, the organisers should obtain some government support and especially the MTA to market this as a tourism event. People travel from all over the world to visit some airshows, especially in the UK, such as Duxford, for example.
As mentioned, aero enthusiasts number in their hundreds of thousands and some additional arrivals in Malta towards the end of the summer season will surely do no harm to our tourism results.
Perhaps this is where our hoteliers are sometimes limited in their vision. We are still stuck in the mentality of bread and butter summer tourism. Some inroads have been made in the niche markets of conference travel, agro tourism, while diving holidays have become a market to themselves.
While the Malta International Airshow is not on a par with, for example, the Isle of MTV concert, we should never assume that we know it all and know best. We are sure that there are a great many people who would come to Malta specifically for the airshow if there were good value package deals out there which are marketed properly.
One only needs to take a drive past the MIA’s main runway to see just how many plane spotters and photographers there are in Malta, let alone the rest of Europe (and why not, beyond).
This of course, also ties in with the government plans to develop a civil aviation register. While aviation is a business built around safety and reputation, a little bit of self promotion never does any harm and the airshow is a perfect way in which to do it.
Malta’s aviation sector is one which has remained cautious over the years and has developed a very good reputation as being serious, well equipped and a good place to do business.
It has slowly begun to grow with various companies setting up offering crossings to Gozo, helicopter flights around Malta as well as flying schools and those who simply have a small base here.
While we cannot expect the register to grow to the proportions of our shipping register, there is definitely potential out there. If all stakeholders got together and worked more closely, in terms of hotels, ancillary services, the companies themselves and the Malta International Airport, then we could be onto something good.