Air Malta was set up in 1973 as the Maltese national flag carrier and today operates 15 aircraft including 6 Boeing 737-300 and 9 Airbus A320 family aircraft. Air Malta flies 33.6 million passenger-kilometres annually on scheduled and chartered flights to around 55 destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The Air Malta group comprises of other 12 subsidiary companies ranging in activities which include insurance brokerage, other airlines, hotels and maintenance organisations (Lufthansa Technik Malta Ltd).The airline is currently engaged in a fleet renewal programme which, when complete, will be an all Airbus A320 family fleet.

Air Malta’s Flight Operations Department is a certified JAR OPS 1 organisation and is also a TRTO organisation. The airline’s engineering department is a JAR 145 maintenance organisation. Considerable technical expertise exists in this department due to a long standing association with Airbus and Boeing. Air Malta Flight Operations has participated in a number of previous European projects, including two Functional Hazard Assessments of the introduction of RVSM in the ECAC airspace, the design of on board software being developed by Airbus for its Less Paper Cockpit project and continuous participation in seminars and aeronautical conferences.

The airline will contribute to FLYSAFE primarily by providing technical support and end-user acceptability criteria in the specifications stages of design and by participating in technical and line-pilot evaluation of relevant deliverables. Also contributing to dissemination activities, the airline will participate across all work packages of the project.

Air Malta has a policy of contributing to the progress of air travel and accordingly it is interested in participating in technical activities that promote this policy. FLYSAFE will also offer Air Malta’s Flight Operations technical team a new challenge with its participation in the development of Europe’s next generation on-board safety systems. This will contribute to the enrichment of the organisation’s core technical team, which can then be exploited by dissemination both within the airline and otherwise. Air Malta will also benefit from participation through positive publicity of its activities.