Thursday, 15th May 2008
Grounded: No fuel for light aircraft
Private light aircraft are grounded at Malta International Airport because of the unavailability of Avgas, the fuel on which these aircraft run.
Ivan Gatt, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said the association has been inundated with calls from furious owners who operate commercially. About 20 aircraft have been affected.
"It is incredible that in this day and age, the company responsible for the supply of Avgas 100LL at the airport has run out of this type of fuel. All private aircraft running on Avgas are currently grounded which is an unacceptable situation," Dr Gatt said.
The reason for the unavailability of this type of fuel is unclear. Requests for more information from Malta International Airport and Enemalta Corporation, which supplies the fuel, brought no response.
Pilots of light aircraft who intend to land here have been notified, through their flight information bulletin, that "Avgas fuel is temporarily not available".
This is certainly bad for Malta's image, Dr Gatt added.
This has been the situation for a number of days and until yesterday Dr Gatt had not yet been informed when this type of fuel will be available again.
ICAO's (International Civil Aviation Organisation) regulations stipulate that for an international airport to maintain its status, it has to have this type of fuel available at all times, he noted.
Some years ago, an Avgas 100LL fuel depot was constructed costing thousands of Maltese liri.
This depot was also meant to serve as a self-service pump for light aircraft to avoid the costly fuelling through Enemalta employees and vehicles. But this practice is still in use, because the depot, though having everything in place for it to be functional, has yet to be commissioned.
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Comments
Believe the PM when he says, that we are state of the art, the envy of other European countries.
To be polite we are more like - STATE OF THE FARCE!
But then again, "They promise a lot, they deliver very little and when things go wrong, there is always a plausible excuse for their failures".
And then there is the previously prestigious
MALTA INTERNATIONAL AIR RALLY.....
Situations such as this are a disgrace for Malta in the 21st century. Not only is Avgas 100LL not available but when it eventually becomes available the price will be prohibitive. Do you believe that it takes 4 persons to fuel a light aircraft in Malta! Yes FOUR. That is, 3 Enemalta employees and the aircraft pilot. Enemalta also dispatches 2 vehicles - a bowser and a van. Most other airfields are equipped with self service pumps and where this is not the case one man drives up to the aircraft in a bowser, fuels up and accepts payment.
The consequences of this sad situation is that many aircraft operators are resorting to using Mogas, (automotive fuel) which has resulted in severe damage to some aircraft engines and the danger which this entails.
To put the price in perspective, the cost (incl. tax) per litre in Malta was about EUR 2.55 or USD 4.00 per litre. This is guaranteed to go up when Avgas becomes available again. The cost in the US is about USD 1.10 or EUR 0.71 per litre.
Something somewhere is very warped and distorted.