Carre Aviation takes delivery of a Global Express

Maltese-registered company Carre Aviation Ltd. has taken delivery today of its second Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express, registration 9H-LLC.

Year built: 2001

Previous registraion: N1DS (canx on 23/2/2011)

Construction number: 9098

ICAO-24 (hex): 4D2054

HMS Westminster in Valletta Port

Royal Navy's Duke Class (Type 23) Frigate HMS Westminster (F 237) has arrived in Valletta Port (Grand Harbour) this morning at 0910LT on a four-day visit.

HMS Westminster currently has one Merlin HM.1 helicopter (ZH841/502) embarked.

HMS Westminster is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-4/5 Wharf and she is scheduled to sail from Malta on Tuesday, March 29th, at 1045LT.

Air Malta flight turns nasty after luggage goes missing

Nigerian workers who used to work in Libya and were flown home to Lagos from Djerba on an Air Malta mercy flight, tried to reboard the aircraft after discovering that some of their luggage was missing.

PBS said that after the flight landed in Lagos the passengers were kept on the tarmac until the luggage was unloaded.

Tempers flared when it was realised that some of the luggage was missing. Some of the Nigerians shouted abuse at the Air Malta crew and tried to reboard the aircraft, but the crew, assisted by two Maltese policemen, managed to close the aircraft's doors. Some of the Nigerians banged on the aircraft and others sat down in front of the wheels to block its departure.

The crew contacted the control tower and the plane was able to leave after Nigerian soldiers intervened. No one was injured.

(www.timesofmalta.com)

First Airbus A380 lands at Malta Int'l Airport

The biggest airliner in the world, the Airbus A380, has landed for the first time at Malta International Airport this afternoon at 15:15 local time.

The double-decker aircraft, operated by Lufthansa, has arrived in Malta for a brief stopover in the course of an extended training flight that also took the aircraft earlier to Frederic Chopin Airport in Warsaw (Poland) and Ataturk Airport in Istanbul (Turkey).

The A380 departed back to its hub at Frankfurt International Airport (Germany) at 17:10 local time.

M.I.A. plc registers profit of €10.7 million in 2010

Malta International Airport plc's Board of Directors has proposed a gross dividend of €0.05,3846 (net €0.03,5) per share after reporting a full year profit of €10.7m.

The company said its result followed a significant increase in the volume of traffic through Malta IAP last year. Passenger traffic was up by 12.9% from the previous year and aircraft movements were up by 10%. Cargo figures dropped by 4.5%.

Group revenue increased from €46.45m to €51.34m, an increase of 10.5% over the previous year. Aviation revenue increased from €34.73m to €38.39m whilst Retail and Property (previously referred to as non-aviation revenue) increased from €11.26m to €12.46m.

The company said that profit before tax increased from €14.13m to €16.97m. The net profit increased from €8.84m to €10.69 million.

M.I.A. plc said the results reflected the increased volume of traffic mentioned earlier but they also highlighted the efforts made by the group to contain costs as much as possible notwithstanding the higher volume of passengers who passed through the terminal and a significant hike in the rates for utilities last year.

Revenues from the airport segment, which consist mainly of regulated fees, were up from €34.73m to €38.39m. This segment constituted 74.8% per cent of the group’s total revenues. The retail and property segment increased by 10.7%; from €11.26m to €12.46m. Significant increases in this segment were registered in the car park business, retail and catering outlets and in rents. The revenues from the retail and properties segment constituted 24.3% of the group’s total revenue.

The key element of success in the airport business was not only to increase the volume of traffic that passed through the infrastructure but also to contain costs as the increases.

Operating costs in 2010 increased by €1.84m. However, a good part of this increase was due to the massive increase in the utility rates of €1.09m. In fact, the total cost of utilities in 2009 was €1.83m, shooting up to €2.92m in 2010. Staff costs also increased by 6.3% or €0.53 million. Significant cost reductions were made in maintenance, cleaning and in telecommunications, the company said.

During the year the group carried out numerous infrastructural investments. The single largest investment during the year was the building of the Skyparks Business Centre which at the end of December amounted to €2.84m. The whole project is expected to cost €16 million and is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.

M.I.A. plc forecast a consolidation of last year’s record number of 3.29m passsengers.

The group’s profit after taxation amounted to €10,691,217.

(www.timesofmalta.com)

Comlux Malta Ltd. takes delivery of new A319 CJ

Maltese-registered company Comlux Malta Ltd., part of Comlux The Aviation Group, has taken delivery today from Airbus' plant at Hamburg-Finkenwerder of a new Airbus A319-115X Corporate Jet, registration 9H-AVK.

Year built: 2011

Test registraion: D-AVWJ

Construction number: 4622

ICAO-24 (hex): 4D2052

TM/DCA publishes the latest edition of the Maltese National Aircraft Register

Transport Malta / Directorate of Civil Aviation has published today the latest edition of the Maltese National Aircraft Register.

New additions (since last register update on February 1, 2011):

• 9H-EPA - Tecnam P92-JS (European Pilot Academy Co. Ltd.)
• 9H-WLD - Dassault Falcon 900B (Carre Aviation Ltd.)

M.I.A. plc releases traffic results for February 2011

Passenger movements at Malta International Airport for the month of February reached 174,877. This is an increase of 17.8%, when compared to the same month last year. Seat capacity for the month increased to 275,461 seats, i.e. 20.1% more than February 2010.

The last week of February saw an extraordinary influx of traffic arrivals from Libya and an even larger amount of departing traffic on scheduled and unscheduled aircraft movements, registering a total of 5,500 passenger movements. Passenger movements by means of military and private aircraft had no impact on the results, since this traffic is excluded from official figures.

The French, Spanish and Italian markets once again grew remarkably in February, by 61.4%, 51.5% and 15.2% respectively, whereas Germany and the UK grew by a more modest 8% and 6.5% respectively.

For the first two months of the year, passenger movements grew by 16.3%. aircraft movements increased by 14.8%, seat capacity increased by 15.2%, seat load factor registered a slight increase of 0.6%, MTOW increase by almost 20%, and cargo and mail were almost the same with a negligible increase of 0.2%.

(www.maltairport.com)

An Air India A332 diverts to Malta IAP due to an undercarriage problem

An Air India Airbus A330-200 (VT-IWB), performing evacuation flight AIC160 from Tripoli (Libya) to Delhi (India), had to divert to Malta Int'l Airport yesterday late in the evening after the crew reported that it could not retract the landing gear after departure from Tripoli. The aircraft landed safely on RWY31 and vacated under its own power to apron-9.