A bird’s-eye view of home

Our seatbelts are fastened, the engines rev up, the smell of fuel wafts through the windows and there’s a ripple of waves as the seaplane lifts off from its berth in Valletta’s Grand Harbour.

I’m one of 14 passengers and am sitting in the front row of Harbourair’s De Havilland DHC-3 Turbine Single Otter plane for a 30-minute aerial tour of Malta.

Even though I’ve flown in and out of Malta’s airport hundreds of times, this is the first time I’ve really seen the island properly from above.

What makes a trip in this grande dame of the Maltese skies even more fascinating is her colourful and international history, and the fact that she is the only Otter flying in Europe today. Built in 1960, this seaplane is one of only 466 Otters ever built.

It was initially used by the Burma Air Force for rescue and reconnaissance flight missions before being sold to a skydiving club in Sweden where it got a new turbine engine and spent 15 years.

From Sweden, she headed across the Atlantic to the US and was bought by Harbourair in Vancouver, Canada, in 2006. After getting a complete makeover, she flew for a year in the Canadian province of British Columbia until 2007, when it was dispatched to Malta.

Two ferry pilots flew it on the 10-day trip from Canada to its new home in Malta, an across-the-world route with several stops in Canada, Greenland, Scotland, England and France.

Once in Malta, it was refitted with new floats and touched down at its new base in Valletta’s Grand Harbour on June 28, 2007; its maiden flight took place on July 25 that same year.

After veering northwards, we enjoy a spectacular view of historic Valletta with its fortresses and bastion walls.

Once we’ve reached our cruising altitude, we’re high enough to avoid turbulence but low enough to get a great view of the crowded areas of Sliema and St Julian’s before seeing the choppy waters of St Paul’s Bay, the tourist locality of Buġibba, the coastal town of Mellieħa and the long lines of cars waiting to board the Gozo ferry.

I’m not a big fan of small planes or turbulence but the flight is relatively smooth apart from the odd bump. Our pilot, a 30-year-old French Canadian, is one of the few qualified seaplane pilots in Europe.

He tells us there are only a handful of seaplane companies in Europe, compared to Canada. He’s competent and friendly and is keen to share information about the plane and sights along the way.

Once we are over the north of Malta, the concrete jungle landscape below us changes to a more rural mix of low stone walls and scattered fields, and, to our far right, we see the sheer drop of Dingli Cliffs.

After a bump it’s out over the aquamarine-coloured waters of the Mediterranean before flying slightly lower over the stunning Blue Lagoon, the small island of Comino and then Gozo.

The contrast between laid-back Gozo and densely populated Malta never ceases to amaze me. Even though they are only a few kilometres apart, the psychological distance seems much greater.

We take a sharp left and swoop low over the Azure Window, one of Gozo’s key attractions and one of the most stunning sea arches in the world.

All too soon, the 30 minutes are almost up and it’s time to head back to the Grand Harbour.

We nosedive down and land smoothly with a splash, gliding along the water before coming to a standstill at the sea ferry terminal.

If you live in Malta, or are just holidaying, you’re sure to spot Harbourair’s seaplane flying overhead several times a day.

Besides offering scenic routes over the island, it also offers daily scheduled flights between the islands of Malta and Gozo.

The scheduled flight takes just nine minutes and is a good alternative if you don’t fancy the ferry crossing between the two islands, suffer from seasickness or if you are strapped for time.

“Our service is widely used by tourists every day for scenic tours and for day trips to Gozo,” says Alfred Manduca, managing director of Harbourair.

“Very few locals are interested in the shorter connection time and mainly use it for quick business meetings.”

He says the company has plans to extend its network in the future, flying between Malta and several destinations in Sicily.

If you’ve flown once with it and know that it has shuttled army personnel, skydivers and now tourists across three continents, you’re bound, like me, to feel even more connected to it.

Prices: Valletta to Mġarr – €50 one-way, €90 return.

30-minute scenic flight – €95.

For more information visit www.harbourairmalta.com.