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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Do you afford not to be a Member of the Malta Business Aviation Association

Ladies/Gentlemen,


2011 is not so new anymore and we thought that it would be opportune to review the milestones achieved by the MBAA and also layout the plans for the year ahead.

2010 was the first full year of the association and with everyone’s effort we must say that a lot got going for the Maltese jurisdiction. The Malta Aircraft register has been enacted and Malta is now a signatory of the Cape Town convention. More aircraft have been put on the aircraft register, including a helicopter in the private register and we are please to see that our membership continues to grow and our members continue to increase their foothold in Malta but also their finger print in Europe.

As many of you know the MBAA is represented since March 2010 in the European Business Aviation Association at Board level. Malta is also Chairing a subcommittee with the purpose to review the EBAA’s Code of Ethics and Standards for Business Aviation Handling Companies.

The MBAA was for the first time represented at EBACE on the EBAA’s stand at EBACE in May 2010. Also at EBACE last year the MBAA assisted Transport Malta and the CAD with a number of high level meetings with potential to attract business and influential entities in the industry.

Our effort to continue bringing the Maltese Jurisdiction in forefront of the business aviation media continued throughout 2010, the latest articles having been published in December 2010, on EBAN, giving us a 3 page spread, http://issuu.com/european_business_air_news/docs/210/10 and more recently in FlyCorporate, January’s 2011 newsletter which was entirely dedicated to the Maltese jurisdiction. With these articles we have also managed to secure advertising space for our members with significant discounts.

With the help of the EBAA and the support from ETI we have organised the first Safety Management System course in Malta, which was very well attended not only by members of the MBAA, but also by EBAA members.

The MBAA has been throughout 2010 been publishing statistics on business aviation aircraft movements in Malta. Based on data supplied by Eurocontrol we have monitored the growth of the industry in Malta. 2010 not only showed signs of recovery but has been a record year for Malta with the largest number of business aircraft movements in Malta since 2004. More information can be found on the publications section the MBAA website.

In November last year we have taken the opportunity of the first board meeting of the EBAA held in Malta to organise a forum whereby members of the MBAA could interact with the board of governors of the EBAA.

We have closed the year with one of the most significant milestones in our opinion, that is participation in MEBA in Dubai with a Malta Pavillion, an initiative by Malta Enterprise, fully supported by Transport Malta and the MBAA. Almost all the participants were members of the MBAA.

So what do we have planned ahead for 2011, as you all know we are supporting Malta Enterprise to participate for the first time at EBACE in May 2011. For more information one may contact Ms. Carmen Walls by email on carmen.walls@maltaenterprise.com .

Our intention is also to support all the local authorities involved with promoting the Maltese Aviation Jurisdiction. We are hoping to soon resolve the issue with regards to applicable VAT for private aircraft, which should add value to the Maltese jurisdiction.

We are working closely with TM and the CAD for Malta to recognise the IS-BAO certification for private operators, which we hope will be achieved before EBACE. We are fully supported by both IBAC and the EBAA and in turn to be able to organise already this year a seminar on IS-BAO certification as well as an IS-BAO auditor certification course.

Recently we have launched an initiative to write up a common Malta Valued Proposition which would serve as common paper when promoting the Maltese jurisdiction, so far the following members have offered their support and participation;

Capt. Philip Apap Bologna – BizAv Services Ltd.
Mr. Nick Ebenhoeh – MCM
Mr. Boris Ioffe – Orion (Malta) Ltd.
Mr. Charlot Cassar – Transport Malta
Mr. Dennis Vella – Malta Enterprise

We would like to have at least one member from a law firm and one member from an audit/accounting clerk. The intention is to have this paper ready for EBACE.

Following the success of the Vienna Regional forum organised by the EBAA, we are lobbying to have a Mediterranean Regional Forum in Malta.

So can you afford not to be a member of the MBAA? More information on how to join the MBAA can be found on our website www.mbaa.org.mt. If you still have any queries do not hesitate to contact us on office@mbaa.org.mt.

Looking forward to welcome you onboard.

Your sincerely,

Stanley Bugeja – President
Malta Business Aviation Association
http://www.mbaa.org.mt/

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