SR Technics secures FAA certification in Malta

SR Technics, part of the Mubadala Aerospace MRO network, has received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), for the completion of maintenance, repair and overhaul services on Airbus A320fam and Boeing 737NG aircraft types in Malta. SR Technics is currently the only facility on Malta with this approval, which will enable the dual release for N-registered aircraft. Since the opening in October 2010, the 150-strong Maltese team has serviced around 60 aircraft, under its existing European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) approval. (Source: SR Technics)

Air Malta suffers lease setback after OLT Express Poland stops flying

An Air Malta Airbus A320 leased to Polish airline OLT Express has returned to Malta after the company stopped flying over the weekend. The aircraft is one of two that Air Malta leased to third parties as part of its restructuring programme. The development is a setback for Air Malta since ten pilots that were seconded with OLT Express as part of the lease agreement reached in April will also be returning.

In a statement issued this evening, Air Malta said it had agreed to provide the aircraft to OLT Express up to November 2015. It said it was not owed money by the Polish airline for the aircraft lease and although outstanding aircraft leases would become payable, it had a deposit of half a million dollars, agreed upon in the negotiations, to cover this debt. The airline said it had already started discussions with several airlines to lease this aircraft and interest has been shown. (Source: timesofmalta.com)

Air Malta makes operating loss of €29.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2012

Air Malta’s operating loss for the year which ended March 31st, was €29.8 million, an improvement of €4.3 million over that in the previous year, airline chairman Louis Farrugia said this afternoon.

Speaking during the presentation of the airline’s results, Mr Farrugia said the year’s performance was further adversely affected by an increase of 30% in the price of fuel. This significantly increased the company’s fuel costs by €17 million. It also had a €4 million drop in profitability as a result of the imposed reduction in capacity as part of the restructuring agreement.

Mr Farrugia said that the target for the current year was to reduce the loss by 50% to €15 million. The airline had also negotiated a strong hedging agreement to buy 79% of its fuel at €108.75 dollars which is 3% better than the average hedged price obtained by the competition. The airline, he said, would be seeing a futher 10% reduction in capacity next year, resulting in a €16 million drop in revenue.

CEO Peter Davies said the company has implemented a new pricing system. Half its destinations had so far been covered by this system, the rest would be covered by October. Mr Davies said that Air Malta had negotiated new contracts with Lufthansa Technik for the overhaul of engines, with M.I.A. plc, leading to a substantial reduction in costs and it was in the process in the process of negotiating a new catering contract, among others. These would save the airline €8 million.

The company was also planning to increase €10 million in revenue by filling its aircraft more, increasing the yield per seat sold and through pre-and inflight ancillary services. Regarding cargo, which the airlines was criticised about by the Airline Pilots Association, Air Malta was overhauling its strategy and it expected to make €2 million more out of cargo handling in the current year.

Mr Davies said that the way forward for the airline was the continuation of the implementation of its 160+ programmes and projects it had in place as part of the restructuring exercise. He said that the company at the moment had 1,000 employees, who had to be cut down to 800. (Source: timesofmalta.com)

AFM hands over ex P24 to San Diego Maritime Museum

AFM's former Swift Class Patrol Boat P24 was this morning officially handed over to the Maritime Museum of San Diego during a ceremony at Hay Wharf base. 

Operations director Mark J. Gallant extended the appreciation of the chairman of the San Diego Maritime Museum and said that such an initiative between Malta and the U.S. would continue to strengthen a long history of friendship. He said the museum would have a display that paid tribute to the fallen Maltese servicemen who died on board the P23 (the sister vessel of P24) during a tragic accident on Sep. 7th, 1984. 

During this morning’s ceremony, the P24 was towed away as an AFM soldier played the bagpipes and a fog horn salute was sounded from the P61. The Austal Class P24 was aptly chosen to tow its predecessor to the Malta Freeport for eventual shipping to San Diego. (Source: timesofmalta.com)

M.I.A. plc releases traffic results for Jan-Jun 2012

Passenger traffic at Malta IAP for the period between January and June 2012 stands at a marginally higher level than that recorded last year, with a slight increase of 1.6%, registering a record total of 1.58 million pax movements for the first half of the year. The loss in traffic registered during the first quarter of the year has been countered by the increase registered in the second quarter of the year.

Aircraft movements for the first half of 2012 were 2.8% lower than the same period in 2011, whilst seat capacity was 3.1% below last year. On the other hand the average seat load factor so far has been 3.5% above that achieved last year.  In the same period, the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) decreased by 1.2% whereas cargo and mail increased significantly by 9.4% over the same period in 2011.

The German market registered the highest growth for the first six months of 2012 with an increase of 11.5%. The French and the U.K. markets registered a minimal increase of 2.1% and 1.4% respectively whereas both Spain and Italy registered decreases, of 7% and 7.5% respectively.

June 2012: For the month of June, passenger movements at Malta IAP grew by 8.5% reaching 375,204 passengers – which is also a record for this month. Aircraft movements registered an increase of 4.7% and seat capacity grew by 5.3%. The average seat load factor went up by 2.4% over the same month last year. In June, there was also an increase of 7.2% in the MTOW, whereas cargo and mail registered a staggering 34.9% increase. (Source: maltairport.com)