The Malta Transport Authority will in January become a super authority that will regulate not just land-based transport but maritime and air travel as well.

The beleaguered authority will absorb the Malta Maritime Authority (MMA) and Civil Aviation Department in a merger intended to create more coordination between the different entities.

The Cabinet has now approved the 10-strong board of directors which will be led by present MMA chairman Marc Portelli.

Four supervisory committees within the authority will focus on its different responsibilities, namely maritime, aviation, transport, and roads and infrastructural projects.

Besides being in the line of fire from a public long frustrated with the bad state of many roads and the often poor traffic management, the ADT had its fair share of public relations disasters. The most recent incident involved its decision to stop the SMS system through which people could report vehicles with excessive emissions.

The system was stopped for restructuring but the authority failed to let people know of its decision and the issue only emerged in an audit report published later. Following a public outcry the system was eventually restored.