Drive to boost Malta air register

The government yesterday launched a consultation process to increase the number of registered airplanes in Malta while boosting the aviation department as a regulator.

Malta needs to implement the necessary legal changes and reform the aviation department to maintain a strong register, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt said during a seminar on the subject.

He launched a consultation process to strengthen the laws regulating the aviation sector. Eventually, the draft legislation will be presented in Parliament.

The registration of planes works more or less in the same way as that of vessels in the sense that countries vying to attract aircraft registration can gain an edge over the competition by making the bureaucracy simpler and cheaper.

The number of requests to register passenger-carrying aircraft in Malta increased last year, Dr Gatt said, adding that even the fleet of planes registered in Malta increased.

Over the past months interest in Malta as a destination for the registration of aircraft and aviation services had grown, he said.

A steering committee will draw up recommendations about the needed legislative changes and incentives to make Malta's aviation sector successful. Aircraft registration can be developed into a niche area of importance similar to the ship registration system, Dr Gatt said. Malta's experience in the financial services sector is probably the best model to follow, he added. However, the aviation sector not only needed a strong legal set-up but also a strong regulator to keep up standards.