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Malta International Airport (Maltese: L-Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta, IATA: MLA, ICAO: LMML) is the only airport in Malta and it serves the whole of the Maltese Islands.

Malta International Airport L-Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta
IATA: MLA ICAO: LMML
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Malta International Airport plc
Serves	Valletta
Location	Luqa, Malta
Hub for	Air Malta
Focus city for	Ryanair (Malta Air)
Elevation AMSL	300 ft / 91 m
Coordinates	35°51′27″N 014°28′39″E
Website	maltairport.com
Map
MLA Location on a map of Malta
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 05/23 2,377 7,799 Asphalt/concrete 13/31 3,544 11,627 Asphalt/concrete
Statistics (2020 [1])
Passengers 1,748,050 Passenger change 19-20 76.09% Aircraft movements 18,982 Movements change 19-20 63.43% Cargo & mail (tonnes) 17,086 Cargo & mail change 19-20 7.63%
RWY source: ARINC eff. 2020-01-30[2]

It is located on island of Malta, southwest of the Maltese capital Valletta in the town of Luqa, and occupies the location of the former RAF Luqa. The airport serves as the main hub for Air Malta and Medavia besides being a base for Ryanair and its subsidiary Malta Air. It is also home to the Area Control Center and hosts the annual Malta Airshow. The airport is operated by Malta International Airport plc.

History

Early years

The first civil airfield was constructed at Ta' Qali, followed by others at Ħal Far (RAF Hal Far) and Luqa. ^[when?] During the Second World War, the airfields at Ta' Qali and Hal Far were severely battered and civil operations subsequently centred on Luqa Airport.[3]

The increase in passenger handling and aircraft movements necessitated the construction of a civil air terminal. Preparations started in 1956 and the British Government mainly financed what was then a £300,000 project.^{[citation needed]} Malta's new passenger air terminal at Luqa was inaugurated on 31 March 1958 by the then Governor of Malta Sir Robert Laycock. The air terminal consisted of two floors including some basic facilities such as a restaurant, a post office, a cable and wireless office and a viewing balcony for the public.^{[citation needed]}

In October 1977, a new and longer runway was launched and works commenced on the extension and refurbishment of the air terminal.[3] An arrivals lounge and another lounge dedicated to VIPs were added and the original part of the terminal building was used for departures.

This refurbishment was not enough as it still lacked certain essential facilities. Immediately after a change in government in 1987, the new administration decided that the 35-year-old terminal was past its time (Luqa Terminal) and therefore gave the green light for the construction of a new air terminal along Park 9 (now located in Gudja).^{[citation needed]}[4]

Until the construction of the new air terminal was completed, the Government embarked on a further upgrade of the old air terminal.^[when?] The facilities introduced included air conditioning, new baggage carousels, flight information monitors, computerised check-in desks, a new floor surface and new retail outlets including a larger duty-free area.

Development since the 1990s

The foundation stone of the present air terminal in Gudja was laid in September 1989 and it was inaugurated in record time 29 months later, in February 1992. Malta International Airport became fully operational on 25 March 1992 and the old Luqa passenger terminal was effectively closed down after 35 years.[5] In November 1995, Balkan Bulgarian Airlines introduced a flight from Sofia to New York City that stopped in Malta. The route resulted from a partnership between Balkan and Air Malta and was operated by Boeing 767s.[6][7][8]

Its passenger numbers have increased from 3.5 million in 2011 to 6.0 million in 2017.[9] The increase in passenger numbers is mainly due to the increased number of routes served by low-cost carriers. Ryanair based one aircraft in Malta from May 2010, increasing to two in May 2012, three in March 2016, four in March 2017, five in March 2018 and further to six in April 2019.[10] The largest aircraft visiting Malta International Airport regularly is the daily Emirates Boeing 777-300. The airport has received occasional visits by the Airbus A380, usually for repainting at one of the local maintenance facilities.[11]

Facilities

Overview

The airport has a single passenger terminal which became fully operational on 25 March 1992. This replaced the old Luqa terminal which is by 2020 mostly used for cargo. Malta International Airport air terminal operations include general passenger services, and the operation of an extensive range of retail services at the airport, airside and landside shops, restaurants, and other outlets, which are all operated on concession agreements. The airport offers one VIP lounge, the La Valette Club.[12] The airport also hosts several maintenance facilities including those operated by Lufthansa Technik and SR Technics.

Other facilities

The head office of Medavia is on the airport property.[13]

Located within the grounds of Malta International Airport, the Business Centre is the first building in Malta to have applied for BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) to become the island's first Grade A office park. The head office of Air Malta is at Level 2 of the Skyparks Business Centre.[14]

The Malta Airport MetOffice[15] is part of the Malta International Airport and provides the function of a national meteorological service for Malta. Although they primarily serve aviation they also service the public sector.[16] All equipment, other than the Doppler Weather Radar, is enhanced by automatic weather stations, of which eight are situated in Malta and Gozo. At the same time an aerodrome weather observation system is located at the airport. The MetOffice is able to get information from the Agencia Estatal de Meteorología in Madrid and the UK's Met Office along with numerical weather models such as those provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England.[17]

Military usage

The Air Wing of the Armed Forces of Malta is based at Malta International Airport. The Air Wing terminal consists of six hangars. The Air Wing operates a total of four fixed-wing aircraft, six helicopters[18] and a UAV.[19]

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Malta:[20]

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines[21]	Athens
Air France[22]	Seasonal: Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Air Malta[23]	Amsterdam, Berlin (ends 8 January 2023),[24] Brussels, Catania, Frankfurt, London–Gatwick, London–Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Milan–Linate, Munich, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Paris–Orly, Rome–Fiumicino, Vienna, Zürich
Air Serbia[25]	Belgrade[25]
airBaltic[26]	Seasonal: Riga
British Airways[27]	London–Gatwick
easyJet[28]	London–Gatwick, Manchester Seasonal: Milan–Malpensa, Naples
Emirates[29]	Dubai–International, Larnaca
Iberia[30]	Seasonal: Madrid
Israir Airlines[31]	Seasonal: Tel Aviv
ITA Airways[32]	Seasonal: Rome–Fiumicino[33]
Jet2.com[34]	Manchester Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Newcastle upon Tyne
LOT Polish Airlines[35]	Seasonal: Warsaw–Chopin
Lufthansa[36][37]	Frankfurt, Munich
Luxair[38]	Seasonal: Luxembourg
Norwegian Air Shuttle[39]	Seasonal: Copenhagen, Oslo
Ryanair[40]	Athens, Barcelona, Bari, Bergamo, Birmingham, Bologna, Bordeaux, Bournemouth, Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, Cagliari, Catania, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Dublin, Edinburgh, Gdańsk, Kraków, Lisbon,[41] Liverpool,[41] London–Luton, London–Stansted, Lourdes, Luxembourg, Madrid, Manchester, Marseille, Milan–Malpensa, Nantes, Naples, Niš, Perugia, Pisa, Porto, Poznan, Riga, Rome–Ciampino, Shannon, Sofia, Stockholm–Arlanda,[42] Tallinn, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Toulouse, Trapani, Treviso, Trieste, Turin, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw–Modlin, Wrocław, Zagreb Seasonal: Beauvais, Brindisi, Chania, Eindhoven, Genoa, Lamezia Terme, Paphos, Parma, Pescara, Seville, Valencia
Swiss International Air Lines[43]	Seasonal: Zürich
Transavia[44]	Seasonal: Nantes, Paris–Orly
Tunisair Express[45]	Tunis
Turkish Airlines[46]	Istanbul
Vueling[47]	Barcelona, Paris–Orly Seasonal: Bilbao
Wizz Air[48]	Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Katowice, Warsaw–Chopin Seasonal: Cluj-Napoca, Skopje, Sofia

Statistics

Busiest routes

Busiest international routes out of Malta International Airport (2017)[49]

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	Airlines	% Change (vs 2016)
1	London Gatwick Airport	379,000	British Airways, EasyJet, TUI Airways	9.7
2	Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport	313,000	Air Malta, Alitalia, Ryanair	1.0
3	Frankfurt Airport	300,000	Air Malta, Lufthansa	11.0
4	Catania Airport	289,000	Air Malta, Ryanair	53.4
5	Brussels Airport	240,000	Air Malta, Ryanair	109.6
6	Munich Airport	215,000	Air Malta, Lufthansa, Niki	44.0
7	Manchester Airport	215,000	Air Malta, EasyJet, Jet2.com, Ryanair, TUI Airways	0.1
8	London Heathrow Airport	193,000	Air Malta	2.5
9	Istanbul Atatürk Airport	150,000	Turkish Airlines	12.8
10	Paris Orly Airport	126,000	Air Malta, Transavia France	0.9

Busiest airlines

Top 10 passenger airlines out of Malta International Airport (2016)[9]

Rank	Airline	Passengers	% Change (vs 2015)
1	Ryanair	1,731,881	41.30
2	Air Malta	1,600,408	7.47
3	EasyJet	279,266	15.75
4	Lufthansa	230,965	7.21
5	Wizz Air	177,420	17.33
6	Turkish Airlines	132,521	11.98
7	Alitalia	111,504	24.91
8	Emirates	88,329	3.45
9	British Airways	80,024	0.97
10	Vueling	73,131	8.28

Ground transportation

Bus

Malta International Airport is served also by several buses operated by private transportation groups and public transport operated by Malta Public Transport. Malta Public Transport buses serve the airport. A mixture of Express and local services are available.[50]

Car

The airport is located 5 km (3.1 mi) southwest of the capital, Valletta.

Accidents and incidents

• On 5 January 1960, Vickers Viscount G-AMNY of British European Airways was damaged beyond economic repair at Luqa when it departed the runway after landing following a loss of hydraulic pressure.[51]
• On 25 November 1973, Luqa Airport witnessed the landing of KLM Flight 861. The aircraft, named "Mississippi", was a Boeing 747 hijacked by three young Arabs over Iraqi airspace on a scheduled Amsterdam-Tokyo flight with 247 passengers on board, after the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane when no country would grant landing permission. Most of the passengers and the eight stewardesses were released after negotiations with the Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, who argued with the hijackers that the plane could not possibly take off with both the passengers and the 27,000 gallons of fuel they had demanded, given the (then) short runway. With 11 passengers on board the jumbo jet left Malta to Dubai, where the incident ended without fatalities.[52] The hijack was claimed by the Arab Nationalist Youth Organization.
• On 23 November 1985, Luqa Airport was the scene of one of the deadliest aircraft hijackings in aviation history before the September 11 attacks.[53] EgyptAir Flight 648 was forced to land in Malta en route to Libya. Unit 777 of the Egyptian counter-terrorism forces was dispatched to deal with the incident. Storming of the Boeing 737, reluctantly authorised by Maltese officials after five hostages were shot, resulted in the death of over 60 passengers plus several security personnel and aircrew as well as the hijackers, members of the Abu Nidal Organization.
• Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted for the Lockerbie bombing on the theory that he loaded a bomb onto Air Malta Flight KM180 Malta-Frankfurt at Luqa Airport which it is alleged found its way via the interline baggage system onto Pan Am Feeder Flight 103A Frankfurt-London and eventually onto Pan Am Flight 103 London-New York.
• MLA was the origin airport of the Air Malta Flight 830 Malta-Istanbul hijack which ended in Cologne.
• On 21 February 2011, two Libyan fighter pilots, both claiming to be colonels, defected and landed their Mirage F1 jets at the airport after refusing to carry out orders to fire upon a group of civilian Libyan protesters in Tripoli. On the same day two Eurocopter Super Puma helicopters registered in France also landed carrying seven French nationals who were under Italian contracts to work in Libya.[54][55]
• On 24 October 2016, a CAE Aviation Fairchild Merlin twin turboprop crashed on take-off a short distance from the runway. All five people on board were killed. The aircraft was taking part in a French-led surveillance operation to counter people smuggling.[56][57]
• On 23 December 2016 'Afriqiyah Airways Flight 209, operated by an Airbus A320, was hijacked while en route from Sabha Airport to Tripoli International Airport in Libya, and diverted to Malta International.

References

External links

Media related to Malta International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Current weather for LMML at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for MLA at Aviation Safety Network

На других языках

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[de] Flughafen Malta

Der Malta International Airport (IATA-Code MLA, ICAO-Code LMML) ist der einzige internationale Flughafen des Staates Malta. Er liegt in der Nähe des Ortes Luqa und ist Heimatbasis und Drehkreuz von Air Malta sowie seit 2010 eine Basis von Ryanair.

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- [en] Malta International Airport

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[es] Aeropuerto Internacional de Malta

El Aeropuerto Internacional de Malta (en maltés: Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta.) (IATA: MLA, OACI: LMML) es el único aeropuerto de Malta, y se encuentra entre los municipios de Luqa y Gudja. A veces es llamado Aeropuerto de Luqa y en el ámbito internacional, también es conocido como Aeropuerto de La Valeta, ya que se encuentra a escasos 8 kilómetros de La Valeta, la capital maltesa.

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[fr] Aéroport international de Malte

L'aéroport international de Malte (code IATA : MLA • code OACI : LMML) est le seul aéroport international de Malte et il dessert l'ensemble de l'archipel maltais. Il est situé sur le territoire du kunsill lokali-conseil local de Luqa sur l'île de Malte. Il occupe l'emplacement de l'aérodrome de la RAF de Luqa et a été complètement réaménagé afin de devenir un aéroport civil opérationnel.

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[it] Aeroporto Internazionale di Luqa

L'Aeroporto Internazionale di Malta, noto con il nome commerciale di Malta International Airport (Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta) è l'unico aeroporto dell'arcipelago maltese.

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[ru] Мальта (аэропорт)

Международный аэропорт Мальты (англ. Malta International Airport, мальт. Ajruport Internazzjonali ta ’Malta) — единственный международный аэропорт на территории Мальты. Расположен близ муниципалитета Лука, приблизительно в 5 км к юго-западу от столицы Валлетты.

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