An aviation park spanning 20 hectares and costing the government €17 million is being built on the outskirts of Safi to pave the way for SR Technics to start its aircraft maintenance operations there in August.

The park includes the current Medavia hangar, which will host SR Technics' facility until the latter's new hangar is completed near Lufthansa Technik at the airport's Gate Four in around three years' time.

Medavia's new 50 metres by 100 metres hangar will be built from scratch within the park.

It is being constructed on the site of an older hangar, which is being demolished.

David Xuereb, architect responsible for the project on behalf of Malta Industrial Parks, said the project would lead to the closure of the road leading to Safi and instead the present taxiway would be turned into a road leading to Safi centre.

This would enable the aviation park to be linked to the main runway. Part of the Armed Forces of Malta compound in the area will also be relocated.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said Malta had already attracted two of the largest companies in aviation maintenance - Lufthansa Technik and SR Technics.

The aviation park would enable Malta to attract more companies which did this kind of work, even on a smaller scale, as well as those companies involved in other aspects of aircraft maintenance. Some companies had already expressed an interest in offering ancillary services, he said.

The project, the minister said, had to be concluded by July since SR Technics' first aircraft was due in for maintenance in September.

Mr Xuereb said a lot of attention to detail was going into the project, such as the re-use of construction waste from excavations and of the steel structure of the old hangar which is being demolished.

Once completed, all rainwater that falls on the park will be stored in water reservoirs.