Malta’s aviation register has grown to 665 aircraft, marking a growth of 500 per cent in ten years, Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia said on Thursday. 

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Malta’s aviation industry was able to turn an obstacle into an opportunity and where other countries had fallen behind, the civil aviation directorate’s work had served to grow the industry, he said. 

Malta enacted the Aircraft Registration Act in 2010 and by the beginning of 2020 had 411 registered aircraft, with previous transport minister Ian Borg saying the agency hoped to increase this by another 60 during that year. 

There was a jump of 200 registrations between 2020 and the end of last year. 

Farrugia attributed the register’s success to the trust foreign investors have in Malta and Maltese professionals. 

“Building a good reputation is an uphill struggle but the opposite will apply if we are complacent. In this regard, I pledge to fight excessive bureaucracy and cut red tape as much as possible. We need to remain focused and efficient, delivering a timely and cost-effective product,” he said. 

“We have also been told by many that Malta is the preferred jurisdiction in Europe and I have learned that we have outpaced many larger jurisdictions. But this growth needs to be sustainable both fiscally and environmentally.”