The Government is preparing a national aviation policy to give the industry the impetus and attention it needs to grow in a planned and structured manner, Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella said yesterday.

Aviation is a priority sector for the economy and the tourism industry

He said aviation was considered a priority sector for the economy and the tourism industry so the Government was also planning to upgrade the Civil Aviation Directorate into a fully-fledged authority, responsible also for the civil aviation register.

Mr Vella, whose remit includes the aviation sector, was speaking during a visit to Lufthansa Technik.

He said the Institute for Tourism Studies was pulled out of the Education Ministry’s remit and included in his list of responsibilities, along with the national airline, Air Malta.

This was an important development as his ministry now encompassed all the stakeholders of the tourism industry, he said.

He explained that where once tourism used to depend on the amount of promotion done by the Malta Tourism Authority, the future of tourism now also depended on accessibility, new routes, frequency of flights and the aviation industry as a whole.

Mr Vella spoke highly of companies like Lufthansa Technik which was providing essential services to the aviation industry. The Government was in talks with the company which was looking at expanding its operations to also cover wide-bodied aircraft.

There were also companies servicing smaller airlines and smaller aircraft visiting Malta as well as an increasing number of aviation schools for pilot training, he added.