DC Aviation Malta (DCAM) has received an AOC from the Transport Malta Civil Aviation Directorate, in response to a request from one of its clients.

The company is now able to operate third-party business aircraft commercially, including aircraft under the Maltese 9H registration. The DC Aviation group already has AOC operations in Stuttgart, Dubai and Zurich and the additional certificate will afford aircraft owners more flexibility in their choice of registrations and operation.

“We have been around for 10 years, and we always knew that one day we would get a Maltese AOC, but you need a launch customer to do that,” explains MD Stanley Bugeja. “One of our customers, who owns an Airbus ACJ318, wanted to be on the Maltese register and AOC, and as an organisation we seized the opportunity to do that.”

He says that the Maltese civil aviation directorate is very business aviation friendly. “More than 90 per cent of the AOCs in Malta are held by business aviation operators, so it really does understand the industry and recognises that time is of the essence; it works with you to achieve your goals. We applied for the AOC at the end of November 2017 and we got it on 1 February by working through Christmas and New Year. This is a fairly quick process for a new AOC.”

DCAM is in the process of registering its second aircraft, a Falcon 7X, onto the newly-acquired AOC, and hopes that this will be operational by the end of March. Bugeja also has a number of other aircraft lined up: “We are hoping to have four aircraft added by the end of June. This will bring the number of aircraft managed from Malta to five, because we are already managing a Falcon 900EX on Part-NCC. By the end of the year we hope to add another two aircraft on top of that.

“We definitely feel that we can offer added value to our customers by having this AOC. Malta is an EASA member state and its AOC offers the same standards as those of the rest of our group. It is a really interesting time for us as an organisation and as an industry.

“There is a significant feeling of growth in our sector, and by having a Maltese AOC we feel that we're more ready for it.”