The government is evaluating the use of the land within the airport perimeter, to ensure that it is maximising its potential for the aviation industry, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.

He said that the airport had premium property overlooking the runway or adjacent to it, but some of it was occupied by a number of companies – including government-related ones – which could easily be relocated because their operations were not directly related to the use of the airport.

He was speaking at the BOV Aviation Outlook 2014 conference, during which he also presented a lifetime achievement award to Michael O’ Brien, the head of the flight operations inspectorate at the Civil Aviation Directorate.

Awards were also presented to Mark Attard, a first officer with Air Malta, and Joe Ciliberti, the organiser of the Malta International Airshow.

The event was addressed by the CEO of Feltom (the federation of English language schools), Genenieve Abela, who said that English-language schools believed that there was a niche for the provision of specialisation tuition for flight crew which would complement the existing flight academies’ offering.

The idea of aviation-related training was also brought up by aviation journalist Marika Vella, who said that an aerospace university was needed, as the coming decade would see a pilot hiring boom, pointing out that it cost around €60,000 to train a pilot.