Diamond Flight Training (Malta) Ltd receives its first Diamond aircraft

Diamond Flight Training (Malta) Ltd. has announced the arrival of the first aircraft in its fleet today, a Diamond DA20 C1-Eclipse registered as 9H-AGB.

Its sistership, a Thielert Jet A1 powered DA40-D equipped with the Garmin 1000 avionics suite registered as 9H-AGA is expected to arrive in Malta during the coming week.

The company, licensed by the Department of Civil Aviation to conduct flight training, will be commencing operations in the coming weeks.

Both aircraft will be utilized for PPL flight training and will also be available for rental.

(Diamond Flight Training (Malta) Ltd)

9H-ADU veers off the runway at Malta Int'l Airport

European Pilot Academy's Tecnam P.92-J, with registration 9H-ADU, veered off the runway at Malta International Airport shortly after landing RWY23, ending up by the side grass infront of Lufthansa Technik Malta's new MRO complex.

Incident occurred around 9 a.m.

No further details available.

Air Malta says crew caused 16-hour delay

Yesterday’s Air Malta flights KM 572/3 from Malta to Moscow (Sheremetyevo) and back, were delayed by over 16 hours due to cabin crew’s refusal to operate them, the airline said this afternoon.

The airline said in a statement that as a result of this delay, Air Malta was facing a bill which amounted to over €109,000.

The issue arose after a delay of 18 minutes was announced on the Moscow flight out of Malta yesterday evening. Due to this delay, the flight's cabin crew claimed that if they operated the flight they would exceed their flight time limitations by three minutes.

Air Malta said that its costs were incurred due to the provision of hotel accommodation, meals and refreshments, alternative flight arrangements as well as transportation and communication facilities which Air Malta provided to its 163 stranded passengers in Malta and in Moscow.

Other costs included salaries, customer care claims, and the consequential delays of four hours on the Malta-Manchester-Malta KM146/7 flight, as well as a three-hour delay on the Malta-Vienna-Malta KM512/3 flights.

The flight to Moscow, scheduled to depart yesterday evening at 11.40 p.m. departed at 4 p.m. today with the return expected in Malta at around 1.30 a.m. tomorrow.

The flight time limitations are currently the subject of arbitration proceedings between the airline and the Union of Cabin crew. The collective agreement stipulates that, since this issue has been referred to private arbitration, until the procedure is concluded, both parties agree that no unilateral action will be taken.

Air Malta said the cabin crew's action was highly inappropriate not only because Air Malta and the Union of Cabin Crew were engaged in arbitration on this issue but also due to the irresponsible nature of the claim.

A spokesman said the airline would be filing a judicial protest against the Union of Cabin Crew as well as against the individual members of the crew. Air Malta said it gave utmost importance to the safety and well-being of its clients and staff and reassured its customers that in the circumstance everything possible was done to minimise the inconvenience

(Times of Malta)

9H-AFP for the first time at Malta Int'l Airport

One of the latest additions on the Maltese Civil Aicraft Register, a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express XRS, with registration 9H-AFP (c/n. 9167, ex HB-JGY), has landed for the first time at Malta Int'l Airport today, late in the afternoon.

9H-AFP is the fifth aircraft on the Maltese Civil Aircraft Register registered to Comlux Malta Ltd., a subsidiary of Comlux Aviation Group.

Malta Int'l Airport releases traffic results for March 2009

During the month of March M.I.A. registered an 18.8% decline in passenger movements. This results in an average decrease of 14.4% for the first three months of 2009 when compared to the corresponding period last year this was mainly due to a decreased seat capacity of 10.7%.

Q1 2009 has been negative and this was mainly due to a lack of seat capacity, moreover comparisons between March 2008 and March 2009 are complicated by the general elections traffic in Malta in 2008, as well as the timing of Easter, which also fell in March last year and will this year fall in April .

Julian Jaeger CEO of Malta Int'l Airport has reiterated “The drop in passenger figures in the first quarter was expected, in actual fact in our forecast we even expected it to be worse, therefore we find no reason to rethink our predictions at this point whereby we have gauged a -5.5% by end year. In April we should be expecting to see a changing picture for the better, however Summer will no doubt be crucial”.

Indeed despite the current decline faced by other European airports, M.I.A. in collaboration with MTA has managed to secure last summer’s seat capacity. The estimated seat capacity for summer 2009 is positive and is expected to reach 3,063,059 an increase of 0.80% when compared to last year’s summer period.

The analysed airline schedule for the beginning of the Summer season for over 600 European airports indicated that seat capacity is down by around 4.8% (Source: OAG)

In the case of M.I.A. it is worth recording that the current carriers, Vueling flying to Madrid and Click Air to Barcelona have re-confirmed their routes for summer 2009.

Moreover Airmalta has repositioned their twelfth aircraft in Malta and will be increasing frequency into its existing network with additional flights to the UK, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey and Bulgaria. The national carrier will also be launching four new routes; Verona, Stuttgart, Paris CDG and Warsaw giving more opportunities to travellers and accessibility to Malta as a destination. Furthermore, Ryanair has replaced Bremen with Bari whilst flights to Trapani will double to four per week. Earlier in the month this airline also introduced two weekly flights to Edinburgh. In July, Ryanair will be adding Bristol to their existing routes and will offer the service twice weekly.

Also, SAS has just launched flights to Stockholm, and will operate this route twice weekly. Besides EasyJet’s current schedule, two weekly routes to Newcastle will be commencing in May. During Summer Air Nostrum, a new operator, will provide three weekly flights to Madrid.

The total passenger movements on scheduled and non-scheduled flights in March 2009 was of 183,984 a decline of 42,556 when compared to March 2008. Likewise, both aircraft movements and cargo & mail figures registered a decline of 15.6% and 9.4% respectively.

Passenger traffic for the three main markets, U.K., Italy and Germany, decreased by 9.5%, 19.5% and 31.0% respectively.

(Malta International Airport plc)

Malta Register of Aircraft - Update

Malta DCA has published the latest update of the Maltese Civil Aircraft Register (dated 5th April 2009).

Addition/s:

• 9H-AFV - Cessna 152 (Malta School of Flying); ex TF-MID/386

New Maltese airline by mid-April

A new airline to be registered in Malta is planning to start its operations on April 20th.

This was announced by Smiliner, the web page that carries news items related to Avro airliners built by the former British Aerospace.

The new airline, to be called EFLY, is being formed in Malta by Italian investors. The airline will operate 2 British-built Avro jetliners, which were in service with low cost airline Flybe.

The two aircraft [BAe.146-300s: G-JEBF (msn E3202) and G-JEBG (msn E3209)] were withdrawn from service by Flybe in mid 2008 and have been in storage at Exeter airport.

The new Maltese airline is hoping to use the 2 aircraft for chartered flight and on wet lease operations (ACMI).

(www.di-ve.com)(www.smiliner.com)

Lufthansa Technik inaugurates new facility

Lufthansa Technik Malta this afternoon inaugurated an Airbus wide-body aircraft overhaul facility with two bays.

With this new facility, it will be able to accommodate two wide-body aircraft simultaneously to overhaul Airbuses A330s and A340s.

The new hangar will also accommodate a number of workshops to support the facility.

Inaugurating the building, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that this 60 million euro investment was a step towards achieving excellence in high value added manufacturing.

"What started back in 2002 as a collaboration between Air Malta and Lufthansa Technik to provide a high quality service is now becoming an important sector in Malta’s diverse economy and confirmation that Malta can achieve its ambitious targets."

Dr Gonzi said that apart from being a testimony to Malta’s foreign investment attractiveness Lufthansa’s presence was also a strong vote of confidence in the Maltese workforce.

"Malta’s flexible, highly-skilled and dedicated workforce has been and is one of the most determining factors why foreign investors choose Malta as an investment destination.

"Even for Lufthansa Technik, the work ethic of the Maltese workforce has been a crucial determinant in this expansion," he said adding that this was confirmed to him by the company’s directors when he visited Lufthansa Technik’s headquarters in Germany earlier this year.

He pointed out that what started off seven years ago as an operation consisting of a 100 workers was now a multi-million investment with a workforce reaching the 400 mark and which was expected to reach 700 by the end of 2010.

(Times of Malta)