Malta Air Traffic Services Ltd has announced the appointment of Claude Mallia to its top role, Accountable Manager (Chief Executive Officer).

Commenting on the appointment, Mr Mallia noted that he is looking forward to this new appointment while continuing on MATS’ achievements, amongst others to ensure that the country will continue to provide a safe, secure and economic service to airspace users, while respect the local stakeholders.

Mr Mallia, an architect and civil engineer by profession, has been on a number of Boards and Government entities.

When the Labour Party took office in 2013, he was appointed a member of the Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee and remained in the role until 2018.

He was also Chairman of the Planning Commission up until this month, a position he occupied since November 2020.

When his resignation from the Planning Commission was announced just last week, Mr Mallia had cited the opportunity for a career change, and denied that his exit had anything to do with conflicts of interest. The news broke of his resignation on 18th January, while MATS announced his appointment to its top role the next day.

No complaints about Mr Mallia’s position as Chairman of Planning Commission have been flagged.

He will be replacing Dr Ing Kenneth Chircop who has occupied the role of MATS CEO since 2016. Under Dr Ing Chircop, the company underwent several projects both on a local and European level.  

On a local level, MATS continued on the Fawwara Radar project and the acquisition of a new site at Mtarfa to enhance its services.  On a European level, MATS worked on the introduction of PBN, Data Link Services, and the BLUEMED IP network upgrade, amongst others.

Dr Ing Chircop has steered MATS during some of its hardest years, due to the pandemic, the company highlighted, while thanking him for his service throughout his tenure.

MATS is Malta’s Air Navigation Service Provider, with Government as a majority shareholder. The company provides air traffic services to aircraft flying in the Malta Flight Information Region (lower & upper), Search and Rescue services, as well as terminal and aerodrome services for the Malta International Airport.

Following years as part of the Civil Aviation Department (see history), MATS as a Company, assumed control of all air traffic, technical support services for all the Communication, Navigation Surveillance infrastructure, and provision of AIM services within the Flight Information Region as from 1st January 2002 in accordance with the Air Navigation License granted by the Civil Aviation Directorate of Transport Malta (TM-CAD).

MATS is nowadays certified under the provision of the Single European Sky (SES).