The 25th edition of the Malta International Airshow took place on the 23rd and 24th September 2017, with the flying display being held at Smart City and Kalkara, and the static display being held at the Malta International Airport in Luqa. There was a lot of hype for this show prior to the event due to its 25th anniversary, and the organisers made their utmost to make sure this show was one to remember. Indeed it was a fantastic show! One of the best airshows the Malta has ever witnessed, with three display teams in the flying display and lots of rare aircraft in the static and flying display!
Aircraft started arriving on Thursday 21st September, with all display teams scheduled to arrive during this day, as well as some other aircraft. The first aircraft to land was a Swiss Air Force Beech 1900, that brought supplies for the Swiss Air Force PC-7 Team. This was followed by a Turkish air force Airbus A400M, that brought equipment and supplies for the Turkish Stars Display Team. A polish air force Casa 295 followed suit, coming in to land to participate in the static display of the Malta International Airshow 2017. The Turkish stars landed soon after lunch, arriving in three batches. In between the arrival of the Turkish stars, MIA saw the arrival of the first ever Polish Air Force F-16 to come and visit Luqa. This was greeted by all Maltese aviation enthusiasts, as it sported conformal and dorsal fuel tanks, another first for the Maltese Islands. Later on in the day another two rare aircraft landed in support of the airshow. The first arrival was a Turkish Air Force C-130E sporting a soloturk livery, and a Royal Saudi Air Force C-130H Hercules, that came in support of the Saudi Hawk Display Team. The day ended with the arrival of the PC-7 Team, that landed in glorious light conditions in the golden hour. All in all it was a hot but great day!
Friday 22nd September was an anticipated day by all Maltese aviation spotters, since many movements were scheduled on this day, as well as some practice displays by the teams that would take part in the flying display. The day started with a pair of French Air Force Alpha Jets, that arrived in formation during the late morning hours, followed by the highlight of the static show, the Ukrainian Air Force An-30 that performed an extremely low pass on the runway before landing, a very nice treat! This was soon followed by the first ever visit of an RAF Hawk T2, two RAF Tornado GR4s and a Hellenic Air Force T-6 Texan, all for the static display.
After a brief pause, two RAF Hawk T1s arrived, followed by a German Navy P-3 Orion and Dornier 228, and a Polish Navy M-28 Bryza. Later on in the afternoon, the remaining participants arrived in the form of a Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet, an Agusta Westland AW-139 of the Guardia di Finanza, a US Navy MH-60S and a USAF KC-135R Stratotanker. Following these arrivals, the Turkish Stars and the French Alpha Jet started preparing to carry out their practice displays, whereas the Saudi Hawks were also inbound to Luqa, together with another C-130H support aircraft. Since the light was soon fading, I decided to enter the airfield grounds to take static pictures of the aircraft that had already arrived before, and I had some free time to take some artistic shots without having to bother with any clutter or people coming in the way, unlike on the show days. This brought the Friday to and end, all in all it was a great day with some great arrivals and results!
On Saturday morning I woke up early in time to be at the gate at around 7am to take photos of all parked aircraft in the early golden light. A French Navy Falcon 50M had also arrived during the night, ready to take part in the flying display later on during the day. Early in the morning, two Saudi Hawks took off to perform a familiarisation practice run at the flying display venue. At around 9am, the Armed Forces of Malta also brought their aircraft to participate in the static display of the show, in the form of a BN-2T islander, an AW-139, and a B200 King Air.
Later on in the day on Saturday, I positioned myself by the coast to capture the beautiful aerial displays prepared by the MAS and all flight crew. The flying display started with a flypast by an Armed Forces of Malta Alouette III carrying the Maltese Flag. This was followed by a rare flying display of a US Navy P-8 Poseidon that flew in directly for nearby NAS Sigonella in Sicily. Following a number of passes, it returned back to Sigonella and left the stage for the first aerial display of the Saudi Hawks in Malta. As soon as the Saudi Hawks ended their display, clouds started looming over the horizon and it became evident that the light would soon fade and we would have no sunshine. In fact, I ended up watching the displays instead of taking pictures, since the light had gone soon after the alpha jet and falcon 50M ended their displays.
Sunday was a totally different story! In the morning, the weather was stormy and we all feared that the airshow would be cancelled. In fact, the static display at Luqa was cancelled since it was impractical to allow people to enter the airport grounds with all that rain and with very few places to take shelter. The airshow organisers were giving hourly updates informing the public about the afternoon proceedings. To everyone’s joy, the weather cleared after noon and the flying display was declared to be ON! With the weather showing that it would be even better than Saturday’s everyone went to Smart City to take photos of the aerial display again. All displays were in clear blue skies that provided some great opportunities for wonderful shots. Another great day!
On Monday, it was time for the departures, where most aircraft were scheduled to take off back to their home countries. I went on the airfield in the morning to get some other shots of the crew preparing their aircraft for takeoff. Much to my delight, two other Saudi C-130H arrived to collect the support equipment and crew back to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi and Turkish display teams were scheduled to depart back to Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Tuesday, the next day. The aircraft used both runways to depart, making it very difficult to capture each and every departure, thus we had to prioritise. On Tuesday, two other Turkish support aircraft arrived to take back the equipment and crew back to Turkey, in the form of an Airbus A400M and C-130H. This was followed by the departure of the Saudi Hawks, their support aircraft and the Turkish Stars. At the end of the day the only aircraft remaining on apron 4 were one tornado GR4 and the MH-60S that were both technical and required some maintenance. This brought an end to the 25th anniversary of the Malta International Airshow! Hopefully this will not be the last edition of the show and another edition in 2018 will take place!
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