One Air Malta RJ70 sold, another two on lease
Air Malta has managed to sell one of its Avro RJ70s to a private owner in the Middle East, MaltaMedia.com reported last week.
Informed sources close to the national airline said that one aircraft which it had leased to the now-defunct subsidiary Azzurra after such aircraft was found unsuitable for operations with Air Malta, has been sold to a wealthy investor from the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain.
It is understood that this investor will be using the Avro RJ as his private aircraft. The price tag that was attached to the four-engine airliner has not been disclosed yet. Meanwhile the same sources said that another two RJs owned by Air Malta, which were also being operated by Azzurra before it went bust and ceased operations earlier this year, have been leased to German national airline Lufthansa at _75,000 (Lm32,000) each for a twelve month period. Lufthansa already employs a relatively large fleet of RJ85s on its short-haul operations.
Air Malta has not reacted to this story so far.
The move by Air Malta to lease these aircraft was prompted by the need to trim down the liabilities posed by its fleet of RJs, especially in matters concerning parking fees.
The purchase of the Avro RJ70s, their high running and maintenance costs as well as their unsuitability for operations on Air Malta’s route network have been a matter of controversy ever since the airline bought them in 1994.
Air Malta has been trying to get rid of its fleet of RJs ever since Azzurra Air's bankruptcy but has found it difficult, mostly because the type is not very popular with airlines, due to its low reliability.