Malta these days is a go-to jurisdiction for aviation in Europe. Ever since the first flight in 1915, aviation has flourished. A mainstay of the colonial presence, it also enjoyed cross-party parliamentary support since independence. Such consistent backing is important for investors.

Malta is a major aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul centre. Its aircraft register has more than 600 aircraft and over 40 air operators with an impeccable safety record. Important aviation companies call Malta home, and there is a large local workforce with specialist skills. The local aviation ecosphere is thriving.

English-speaking and within the Central European Time zone, with excellent legal traditions and judgments, Malta currently leads the Aviation Working Group’s compliance index for the Cape Town Convention. In the eyes of global aviation leaders, it is one of the world’s best places for aircraft- asset protection: owners have complete peace of mind, so there is a viable platform for aircraft leasing and finance to flourish further.

The government’s recent draft Civil Aviation Policy that has been issued for consultation, is useful. As aviation rebounds from COVID and deals with Russia’s war against Ukraine, Malta must eliminate any longer-term bottlenecks that might limit the sector’s potential.

A disruptive future for aviation?

The starting point is the outlook for aviation worldwide. COVID disrupted aviation to the core. With the exception of business aviation and cargo, industry revenues were largely decimated and many aviation careers were wiped out. Multiple older technologies were retired.

However, today we have a rebound in sentiment. Across the world, we are now living with COVID rather than dying from it. We are vaccinating more, travelling more. There is optimism. In a world ridden by conflict, aviation offers a humanitarian link so people better understand one another. Malta’s opening up to European low-cost carriers, business aviation and innovative solutions such as drones is surely a step in the right direction.

Increasingly, it is taken as a given that the environment must be better protected and new aviation technologies trialled. Climate change and extreme weather require solutions beyond sustainable aviation fuels, carbon offsets and higher passenger loads.

In the longer term, disruptive technology will entirely change the way that aviation works. If within three to four years, we have electric eight- to 11-seater regional aircraft with similar payload to their traditional equivalents, they will fly slightly lower, slightly slower and less far, but the public should be ready to be sympathetic. Compromises made now can still make economic sense and they can certainly be improved upon further down the line. Malta needs to be part of this journey.

Enhancing efficiencies in the supply chain will not be a painless task, and demand too will change. With productive online meeting platforms, businesspeople may travel less. But in the end, leisure travel will likely more than compensate.

Malta’s potential to make a difference

Malta’s policy towards aviation can help change the future of flying but challenges must be tackled immediately. Asked in a recent poll what the single most important challenge facing Malta’s aviation industry is, 70 per cent of industry leaders indicated recruitment of trained personnel as their biggest concern.

Most respondents felt there was an urgent need for Malta to upgrade its aviation training with more industry-focused courses by MCAST, University of Malta and other institutions, or perhaps even a dedicated aviation college to serve the urgent demand from air operators and maintenance organisations.

There was an urgent need for Malta to upgrade its aviation training

Short training programmes and apprenticeships need further development and women should be encouraged to join the workforce. The facilitated arrival and presence of foreign talent must also be improved.

In the end, aviation employers need to compete for talent with other sectors like financial services and gaming which may offer a more luring work and lifestyle offering, especially in the shorter term. Perhaps better conditions and more social events are needed. One could contemplate support to employees for special activities like learning to fly.

Wish list 2025

Albeit well-intentioned, the state’s educational providers must better understand the real needs of industry to serve local stakeholders and ensure that Malta’s potential for aviation investment is not stymied by a shortage of the right trades.

Regarding operational capacity, Malta can better exploit industrial sites around its airport, while improving the physical environment. Adding a dedicated engine run bay which serves maintenance organisations without disrupting other airport activity might also help. 

Malta International Airport is already making strong progress towards sustainability and its efforts to facilitate water capture could ultimately reduce flooding and support afforestation and farming. Its planned greater use of solar can help the airport achieve carbon neutrality in advance of its own 2050 target, thereby enhancing the environmental credentials of Malta’s entire aviation industry.  

Guaranteeing a future for general aviation

Every pilot earns her or his wings on a small aircraft. Many budding technicians are attracted to the mechanics of these machines. If there is to be a future for aviation in Malta, there also has to be a plan for general aviation.

Given the great costs involved, increasing tax rebates for aviation training under the Get Qualified rubric is a reasonable ask. Flying schools also merit consideration when larger decisions about airport and airspace use are made. General aviation players are a vital part of the country’s ability to fly: one insensitive decision by state or airport authorities, however well-intended, could put them out of action, forever.

Regarding recreational flying, the government could, in line with thinking at the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, delegate more to flying clubs and other players the limited responsibilities which they can successfully carry. Providing fuel and electric-charging facilities at a single airport location would greatly facilitate and possibly not cost much.

As regards the present proposal for a small Gozo airstrip, one should consider the wider benefits as well as the costs. If there are factors going against, there could always be a landing limitation for electric or other forms of no-noise, no-pollution flying introduced into the future. One idea might be to link the airstrip to amphibian seaplane operations from Grand Harbour. This, coupled perhaps with a flying club in the Marsa port area, might quickly add some needed glamour to a relatively neglected Inner Harbour Area.

Whatever the future holds for aviation, Malta’s economy will fare better if it helps steer its course.

Jonathan Galea is aviation leader at Deloitte. The views here expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to reflect those of any other party.