Aviation in Malta 2019/2020

2019 is officially over as we are now into a new era & a brand new decade to the 2020's. We are going to take a look at normal aircraft visitors & regulars in Malta International Airport. I didn't took a lot of photos so I hope you'll enjoy them.  

Air Malta 9H-AEN Airbus A320 delivered in 2006 taken New Years Eve 2019.

This is one of the final aviation photo for 2019. I have more of Air Malta 9H-AEN on Facebook. This aircraft you see is being towed out of Aviation Cosmetics Malta hanger most likely it's either been re-painted of maintenance. I can't find information of why it went to ACM so I guess it's to do be paint work. While 9H-AEN was at ACM & towed to Air Malta hanger at Apron 8, Smartlynx operated for Air Malta with YL-LCO and later swapped to ES-SAS.

Air Malta 9H-AEI Airbus A320 delivered in 2004 taken New Years Day 2020.

First aviation photo for 2020 has already started taken January 1st 2020. Since I was recovering from alcohol I decided to do spotting by seeing Air Malta's famous retro livery on it's duties. Make the most of seeing this ironic retro livery because 9H-AEI is due to retire in the next few years.

Malta Air 9H-QEB Boeing 737-800 new to Ryanair in 2017 ex EI-GDO taken New Years Day 2020.

We are months away for the launch of Ryanair's franchise Malta Air, it will soon be operating in full Malta Air brand. As of right now, Malta Air is still operating with Ryanair. The way you can tell it's from Malta Air in Ryanair livery is the Maltese registration is shown as  9H-QEB ex EI-GDO. Interesting thing about this aircraft, it was going to join Ryanair UK after UK's exit from the EU as it was going to be G-RUKE it was never used later to be used for Malta Air.

Lufthansa D-AIEA Airbus A321neo delivered in 2019 taken 2nd January.

This is the first time for me to see Airbus A321neo in Malta Lufthansa is seems to gain more of it's Airbus A321neo as well as Airbus A320neo.  This particular aircraft is less than a year old and soon Malta will be gaining more Airbus Neo family fleet within the 2020's & beyond.

Nouvelair Tunisie TS-INQ Airbus A320 new to Air Arabia in 2004 ex A6-ABA taken 2nd January 2020.

Nouvelair Tunisie has been coming to Malta twice. TS-INQ Airbus A320 travelled from Tunis, Tunisia on charter operations with passengers & later I think it was an empty flight it departed full length of runway 31. Monday gone, it came back this time from Djerba-Zarzis, Tunisia for charter however it did not see it because I was due to travel to the UK.

KLM PH-BQI Boeing 777-200 delivered in 2004 taken 2nd January 2020.

KLM for the first time I've seen in Malta & first time since it was last here for few decades. KLM's titled KLM Asia if you don't know what it is or have not seen my post about it, KLM Asia (荷蘭亞洲航空公司 in Chinese) operate flights to Taipei, Republic of China with their Boeing 777 and Boeing 747-400. These days KLM Asia still flies with it's "Asia titles" pretty much similar to BA's British Asia Airways when it use to operate from London Heathrow, UK - Taipei, Republic of China via Hong Kong. Anyway, it was almost 9pm on 2nd January 2020 seeing KLM PH-BQI Boeing 777-200 arrived in Malta from Amsterdam, The Netherlands for ACM going for a re-paint to KLM's updated livery.

Qatar Airways A7-AHP Airbus A320 delivered in 2011 taken 2nd January 2020.

Finally to end up here is Qatar Airways. If you don't know, since June last year Qatar Airways now operates Malta direct from Doha, Qatar with Airbus A320 sadly no heavy aircraft for right now. Some days operates in early hours of the morning & late afternoon so Qatar Airways do stay in Malta for quite long for changeovers of crews compare to Emirates.