Jumbos of the air at MIA

It is not every week that two of the world's largest aircraft land at Malta International Airport, but that was the case last week.

A Qantas Boeing 747 landed at MIA with 340 passengers on board. MIA coordinated the handling and transportation of the passengers who arrived to start a cruise holiday from Valletta.

In a more arduous operation that took over three hours to complete, MIA handled an Antonov 124 carrying a cargo load of over 100,000 kgs.

The cargo was mainly oil rig equipment destined for one of the rigs of Transocean Offshore International, the world's largest oil rig operators. Since the equipment was heavy and bulky, special handling equipment had to be used to offload the cargo.

Cargo and freight development as well as the Cruise and Fly concept are among the new areas of business which MIA is currently developing, under the expertise and technical know-how of its strategic partners.