The Malta International Airshow has been cancelled for the third year in a row. 

The Malta Aviation Society, which organises the show, announced on Saturday that it had “ceased all preparations” for the 2020 event because Malta International Airport “has refused to provide adequate parking space”.

The last airshow, the 25th annual event, was held in 2017. The next two shows, this year and last year’s, were called off amid complaints from the society of lack of financial support from the Tourism Ministry.  

In July the society had said that advanced talks were underway with the ministry over next year’s event.

The society said it was not convinced that the two aircraft parking ramps it had requested formed part of the core operations of MIA. 

It said the evidence it has gathered clearly showed that both parks were seldom used and when they were, there were hardly more than five visiting aircraft.

The society thanked Malta Air Traffic Services for its full support while preparations were underway.

“The Malta Aviation Society is saddened to see that the government of Malta did not put enough effort to insist with MIAplc to provide the space required, thus precluding Malta from having its own proper airshow like every other European country,” it said. 

A Malta International Airport spokesperson told Times of Malta that its priority was ensuring that it had adequate facilities to sustain its core business during busy summer months. 

The airport has plans to develop a new apron - "Apron X" - to improve its aircraft parking facility moving forward, the MIA spokesperson added.