One of the additions to this year’s FBO survey is Portomaso-based Sierra Aviation. The company is hoping to benefit over the coming year from legal changes governing Malta’s handling industry. Operations director Stanley Bugesa explained: “At the moment there is a monopoly between Air Malta and the airport over handling.

“I’ve been in the industry for 12 years, over which time I have come to a special arrangement with both of these to handle aircraft of a certain type (anything less than 10 tonnes). But all this is changing from March 1, 2003, when the monopoly laws will come into place to encourage competition.”

Sierra Aviation started handling in autumn 2002. “The first four months of our operation were mainly spent marketing and letting people know who we were and what we did. This is a young company and we’re still developing our approach. There aren’t many handling agents on the island, and our prices are more competitive than most.

“This combined with the fact that we’re not government appointed means we are expecting a lot more business in 2003.

“In Malta GA is increasing by 15-20% per annum, and we’re expecting our business to double as we are

now able to handle more aircraft than in the initial months of our operation,” said Bugesa.

Business aviation traffic over to Malta is fairly frequent, relative to its size. Bugesa added: “Up to the end of October 2002 there were 1,100 private aircraft flying into Malta.”