May 2010 covers_Covers.qxd - World Airnews

MALTA AVIATION PARK
DEVELOPMENTS
ACCELERATE
From: Chris Cauchi
THE NEW aviation park which is
being built in Malta at a cost of
some 17-million euros and which
will ultimately cover an area of over
200 000 square metres, is attracting increasing
numbers of operators, the latest
two being Medavia and SR Technics
which are both building large premises
at the park.
Due to be fully operational by the end
of this year, the Maltese Prime Minister,
Lawrence Gonzi, has been quoted as saying
that the aviation park was “a vision
through which the government wants to
establish Malta as a major aviation centre
in the world.”
Medavia, a Malta-based company
which forms part of the Libyan Arab Foreign
Investment Company (LAFICO), is investing
10,5-million euros to build a new
hangar and office block at the aviation
park as part of its plan to expand operations
on the island.
The company is mainly involved in the
movement of personnel and cargo from
Tripoli to desert oilfields. It also provides
specialised aircraft maintenance and administration.
It employs 250 people both in
Malta as well as Libya.
The new investment will feature a 5 000
square metre hangar and a 2 000 square
metre office block.
Medavia managing director, Abdurazagh
Zmirli, explained that the new office
block and hangar would be built on
the site of an old similar facility that was
being dismantled. It used to belong to
NewCal Aviation in the past.
Materials from the old hangar will be
recycled and used in the new environmentally-friendly
premises that are
planned to be completed by July.
Another development at the aviation
park is that of SR Technics which is due to
begin operations there within the next
few months and the first aircraft to arrive
there for major maintenance is expected
in September.
The Maltese Minister of Finance, Tonio
Fenech, explained that the aviation industry
was continuing to expand and that
Malta was fully geared to benefit from the
opportunities that would surface in the
NIMROD MRA4 DECLARED ‘READY TO TRAIN’
THE NIMROD MRA4 has made significant
steps forward with the
UK Ministry of Defence recently
having formally accepting the aircraft
and declaring it “ready to train”.
This declaration follows the type
acceptance of the MRA4 which allows
the delivery of production aircraft and
the start of aircrew training, and the
handover of the first production
aircraft, designated PA04, following a
demanding series of acceptance tests.
PA04 (shown above) has now moved
from Woodford to BAE Systems’ Warton
site, where RAF aircrew will be trained
under what is termed the “transition
programme” and the first of those
trained will become instructors.
The MRA4 will transfer to the aircraft’s
future main operating base at
RAF Kinloss later this year once an initial
near future. He said that Malta offered
more than just maintenance services. The
financial services industry, call centres,
software development and other ancillary
services all formed part of the services
Malta offered to prospective clients.
RYANAIR BASE
Meanwhile, Ryanair, the Irish headquartered
low cost carrier, announced at a joint
press conference with the Malta Tourism
Authority that it would establish a base in
Malta with immediate effect. One Boeing
737-800 would be permanently stationed
there and would operate 19 routes, six of
which would be new ones, namely: from
Malta to Billund, Bologna, Krakow, Marseille,
Seville and Valencia.
The new Maltese base will handle up to
800 000 passengers per year and sustain
800 jobs in Malta. The airline will operate
120 weekly flights, and it will invest over
US$70-million dollars at its new base. Q
release to service and a support contract
are in place.
A further milestone achieved recently
was the first flight of the second production
aircraft, PA05, which is now being
painted in RAF livery before undergoing
acceptance flights. The remaining seven
production aircraft are all in build and will
be delivered on schedule.
The MRA4 will fulfil a number of roles
such as anti-submarine and anti-ship
warfare, maritime reconnaissance, intelligence
collection, search and rescue
and attack.
Equipped with more than 90 antennae
and sensors and containing over six
million lines of software code, the
MRA4 is able to scan an area the size of
the UK every 10 seconds. The aircraft is
able to fly 6 000 miles or 14 hours without
refuelling. Q
PRODUCTION RATE INCREASES
BOTH AIRBUS and Boeing have recently
announced production rate increases for
specific models, clearly indicating they
are confident of a decisive turn-around
in the current economic slump.
Airbus will increase the monthly production
rate for its single-aisle A320 Family
from the current rate of 34 to 36,
starting in December, but the production
rate for the long-range A330/A340 Family
will be maintained at eight per month.
Boeing will accelerate planned rate increases
on both the 777 and 747 programmes.
The 777 programme‘s rate will
go up to seven aircraft per month (from
five) from the originally planned early
2012 to mid-2011.
The 747 programme‘s planned production
rate increase to two aircraft per
month (from 1,5 per month) will move
forward from mid-2013 to mid-2012. Q
WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY 2010. 67