Hi Fly Malta is a

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

based at

Malta International Airport Malta International Airport is the only airport in Malta, and it serves the whole of the Maltese Islands. It is located on the island of Malta, southwest of the Maltese capital, Valletta, in the town of Luqa, and occupies the location of the f ...

and a subsidiary of the Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly.

History

Hi Fly Malta started operations in early 2013 with one Airbus A340-600 formerly operated by

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with one more pre-owned on order and planned to start scheduled operations to destinations in

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. During 2015, all of the airlines' aircraft had been stored and in May 2015 the A340-600s were sold to Al Naser Airlines, a front company for

Mahan Air Mahan Airlines, operating under the name Mahan Air (), is a privately owned List of airlines of Iran, Iranian airline based in Tehran, Iran. It operates scheduled domestic services and international flights to the Far East, Middle East, Central ...

. Hi Fly Malta was reactivated in September with the re-registration of one A340-300 from the parent Portuguese company on the Maltese Business Registry and a second A340-300 was added in early 2016 that had previously flown for Sri Lankan Airlines. Several former

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A340-300 airframes were added in 2017. In the summer of 2018, Hi Fly became the first airline to buy a secondhand

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(flown previously by

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), placing an order for two. In autumn 2017, Hi Fly, in a sponsorship of the Turn the Tide on Plastic yacht team in the

Volvo Ocean Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...

, painted one of its A330s in a livery similar to the yacht, with the port side bearing a dirty oceans livery and the starboard side a clean oceans livery. On 19 July 2018, its newly painted Airbus A380, registered as 9H-MIP, arrived at the

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, carrying the Save the Coral Reefs livery. Hi-Fly's A380 saw a brief lease to

Norwegian Long Haul Norwegian Long Haul Aksjeselskap, AS was a division of Norwegian Air Shuttle that operated Flight length, long-haul flights between Europe, Asia, and North America. The airline's fleet consisted of the Boeing 787. The airline was registered in D ...

in August 2018, which operated the aircraft following engine problems with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet. Norwegian leased the A380 again in late 2018 to help deal with the passenger backlog as a result of the Gatwick Airport drone incident. In November 2020, the company announced that the A380 will be retired at the end of its three-year lease period and on 17 December 2020, the A380 made its final flight to

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. One A319 was chartered to the now-defunct Brazilian Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos. In November 2021, it landed at

Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

and re-registered as PS-SIL to be converted to passenger configuration at TAP Hangar, but this never happened. After 3 months in Brazil the aircraft was scheduled to fly back to Europe and had its registration reverted back to 9H-XFW.

Destinations

Hi Fly Malta has no scheduled destinations. Its planes operate on a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

and ACMI basis. One of its Airbus A340-300s (registered 9H-TQM) was reconfigured for Swiss Space Systems prior to its liquidation, and retained a black livery with the Swiss Space Systems logo on the horizontal stabilizer prior to its retirement, while its other airframes are unmarked except for registration.

Fleet

Current fleet

, Hi Fly Malta operates an all-

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fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Former fleet

Hi Fly Malta formerly also operated the following aircraft types:

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Portalbar, Malta, Aviation Airlines of Malta Airlines established in 2013 2013 establishments in Malta