Nomad Aviation of Bern, Switzerland, has been granted an AOC in Malta and has added a Challenger 604 to the Maltese register. The aircraft will be managed by Nomad's sister company Nomad Aviation Europe and the move means that the operator will be based in the EU for the first time.

“The strategy of having an AOC in Malta is very simple,” says md Claude Neumeyer. “At the moment we are a Swiss company and have been only a Swiss company. Switzerland is not part of the EU, which has advantages but also has certain disadvantages.”

Nomad's mission types will remain unchanged, the difference being that some aircraft will be registered in Malta and some will stay in Switzerland. Neumeyer reveals that 2013 was a phase of 'strict consolidation' for the business, having increased its fleet significantly in the previous three years. He predicts that from next year onwards acquisitions may well be made.

The Maltese hq should lead to new personnel too: “We are of course going to be adding more staff. Both companies are fully staffed and an AOC in Malta has the same requirements as anywhere else in the EU, so you need to be fully staffed with the operations structure. We have hired persons that are in charge of the Maltese company who take care of it, be it maintenance, operations or training.”

As for the selection of Malta, various factors were considered in the decision, as Neumeyer explians: “One of the important factors was the language issue. Where we are located at the moment everyone speaks German or English, sometimes French. So we said an important aspect is that it is a country which speaks our language. English is an official language in Malta so this was a prime choice. Our other options were Germany, Austria or the UK, but these countries have already been used a lot.”

Neumeyer believes that the Maltese authorities have a positive attitude towards business aviation: “Malta has a very goal-minded attitude and promotes business aviation at the moment – the government supports it significantly. They also have a business-friendly tax system and a very competent aviation authority.”

He also adds that moving out of the complex Swiss regulatory climate was advantageous for the operator: “Switzerland at the moment holds bilateral agreements with the EU, but these will run out in a certain amount of time and will need to be renewed. There is the question of what will happen there politically. Will they be renewed as they are? Personally I do have a feeling that the EU will want to implement some additional factors and to adjust those agreements a little bit, so that might happen or might not happen. So really the move for us is a proactive one.”

Neumeyer explains that a number of his customers prefer to have their aircraft in an EU AOC environment, and says that the company is covering all bases by having both EU and non-EU options. He hopes to emulate the successful relocations to Malta which have been undertaken by other major operators: “There are a lot of companies moving to Malta. We've seen VistaJet and other companies move to Malta, as well as two major companies from the Austrian and German market. On a political level, the country is saying it wants to push business aviation. They have a friendly attitude while many countries have a restrictive attitude, saying that aircraft create pollution and noise. The Maltese attitude is to develop the business sector.”