Spotters Magazine - Yearbook 2016

The Malta International Airshow is organised by volunteers from the
Malta Aviation Society led by Chairman Joe Ciliberti, and this year’s
edition was the 24th to be flaulessly organised. The volunteers work all
year round to oversee that the maximum possible aircraft participate
to delight the evergrowing local aviation enthusiasts and also a good
amount of foreign enthusiasts who visit the Island for this purpose.
Unfortunately this year’s Airshow was a much smaller and different
event to those successfully held since its inception 24 years ago.
The main factor was the late decision taken by the Authorities for the
airshow to go ahead and for the relocation of the Flying display which arrived
at the 7th hour which this did not allow for the usual organisation/
invitations and lobbying with display teams to participate.
On Saturday, the flying display took place along the coastline of Smart
City, in the south of Malta, but to make matters worse, for the 1st time
in 24 years, the organisers had to take the most difficult decision to
cancel Sunday afternoon’s flying display due to the very bad inclement
weather with heavy downpours and wind gusts apart from the
very low cloudbase.
All these problems added to the low attendance to the airshow for the
first time since its conception. Hopefully, for the 25th Anniversary
in 2017, the authorities will immediately reconsider their decision re
flying display, a decision which came about due to a serious accident
caused on the Airfield in a car charity event held a few days after the
Malta Airshow in October 2015.
Despite these setbacks, the Malta Aviation Society managed to pull off a
great “treat” with the arrival of two Ukraine Air Force SU27 supported
by the mighty IL76 apart from the Polish Iskra display team and the US
Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft.
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