A business plan for the setting up of a National Aerospace Centre for Malta is to be worked upon by the Tourism Ministry together with a Dutch agency and the Malta Council for Science and Technology through an EU grant of €375,000, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said.

Speaking on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of aviation in Malta, the minister said the centre will help Malta become a centre of excellence in aviation.

It will offer support to all stakeholders in the industry and strengthen the country’s competitiveness in the sector.

The minister also said the government was determined to ensure that Air Malta would continue to play a strategic role as a commercially viable airline as well as an integral part of the country’s tourism policy and vision.

He said that in the coming months, the government would be preparing a legal structure for remote pilot aircraft, which were on the increase to ensure they were regulated while seeing what opportunities they could offer.

The ministry was also working with the Gozo Ministry to have the Gozo Rural Airfield complete by 2017 making the sister island more accessible.