Malta Trip report and pics – at Last

Better late than never.

Date 31/8/04:

Cab arrived to pick us up at 12pm on the dot, a rather nice cab at that (a merc!) Got to the LGW North terminal by 12:30pm, and checked in straight away for flight FCA589C to Malta (Luqa) airport. Check-in was extremely smooth and very quick. I got stopped at security and given a once over with a metal detector, then a pat over – and on top of that they checked everything I had in my bag, i.e. – what I had in the bag, and they did checks for any traces of explosives on everything! Glad to see the job being done properly at the airports, but I was a little embarrassed – getting some rather odd looks from other passengers. Our plane wasn’t due in until just before 3pm so I had some time to spend in the terminal. Looking out of the windows, LGW was actually very busy, with at least 4 American airlines flights in, along with TF-ABA of Travel city Direct, an F-27 of Channel express, DC-10 of Das air Cargo and many FCA and BA flights in to.

Since BA have now moved more or less the entire 737 ops to LGW, it was nice once again to see some of the World tail liveries again, since you don’t see hardly any now at LHR.

Upon looking out of the window again, there were two FCA flights in the line for landing, one a 757 (G-OOBD) and the other an A320 (G-OOAS). On the boarding gate information screen it said all those on the Malta flight to go to Gate 48. When we got there, G-OOBD was parked there! I was quite excited to see it sitting there – G-OOAS was sitting at Gate 47, right next door. Turns out AS was our plane. The guys at LGW put the wrong info up on the screen! So I was a little disappointed seeing as I wouldn’t be getting the 757 – having only flown a few months ago on a Bmi A321, the planes are extremely similar.

We began to board at 3:30pm, I had seat 5A. We were due to take off at 4:05pm, but we were 10 minutes late due to two missing passengers – missing passengers seemed to be a regular occurrence that day at the airport – with an Astraeus flight to Salzburg offloading 4 passengers baggage and a BA flight to Murcia doing the same!

We taxied out to the runway, passing by G-OZBH, G-MOND, G-TTOB, TF-ARG and G-NIKO. Also past 2 Croatia Airlines A319’s – is this a regular thing at LGW now – two Croatia flights coming in within the space of 30 minutes of each other?

On to the runway at last, no hanging about. We took off away from the LGW south terminal buildings and headed down to the south coast, routing over Brighton and heading for Paris. Weather was clear for the entire flight allowing me to obtain some nice shots over Paris itself, as well as ORY, GVA and Mont Blanc.

The in-flight meal was Chicken Voulette – whatever that is?! It wasn’t very nice so say the least – covered in some grey sort of slop. And with it the usual roll and butter, crackers with cheese and a pasta salad. For desert a slice of chocolate chip sponge cake. The inflight movie was Shrek 2 – to me not as good as the first movie, but still funny. :p The inflight head-phones were priced at £2.50 a pair, not bad considering the movie that was on – but these weren’t even First choice airways head-phones, they were from the airline AV8! Lol.

We came in from the north over Malta, routing down over Mosta and turning right down to Luqa. Malta at night from the air looked stunning – all the churches lit up with orange, red or fluorescent blue lights, and of course with it being the start of their fiesta time, there were a lot more lights seen from the air.

The landing, which was a very smooth one, took us past two of the Malta Air Charter Mil-8 helicopters. Our plane pulled up alongside an Astraeus 737 (G-STRH) which departed as we were disembarking. The only other aircraft in were all Air Malta – most of which were in hangers.

Luggage was rather slow coming off the aircraft, which added a bit more time to the original delay. Boarded the coach to the hotel at around 8:30 Malta time. Finally got to the hotel (Paradise Bay Hotel) at 9:30pm. I hit the sack about 12:00am.

Brief write up from each day:

Date 1/9/04 – day 1:

Decided to take a walk around the hotel grounds, get used to where everything in the place was. All in all it was a very nice place; however I did feel that where my room was, was a little too secluded from the main part of the hotel. The hotel consisted of 3 pools: 2 outdoor and 1 in door, 350 + rooms, an on-site shop and 3 main halls. Later in the morning we got on a bus and went to the near by town of Mellieha, which offers a beautiful sandy beach and lots of shops. From there we headed to the capital of Malta – Valletta. Didn’t have long to spend here seeing as we had to back at the hotel by 3:30pm for the usual “rep meeting” – out rep being Stefan. :p He had quite a bit to say about various things, and offered the usual trips that the tour operators do. Through him we hired a car for 3 days – we thought it was a good idea, seeing as in Malta they drive on the same side of the road, and by hiring a car you can go where you like for as long as you like.

Date 2/9/04 – day 2:

Day 2 saw the arrival of our hire car – a Fiat Palio, one really naff car! Seeing as we were promised a Ford fiesta in the first place we weren’t exactly very happy, but in the end a car is a car. We took no time in getting out on the Malta roads taking in the various sights of Malta. First stop of the day was Popeye Village – the actual film set of the 1980’s film. Quite pricey I thought to get in, but it was a fun place nun the less. From there later in the day we headed to St. Paul’s Bay, just a few miles down the coast from where we were staying, then onto the coastal town of Bugibba – which overall was my favourite place on the island. Offering a huge range of bars, restaurants and shops. We got lunch in “George’s sea front bar” which overlooked the sea – which at most times was bustling with swimmers and people on boats and jet skies.

Date 3/9/04 – Day 3:

Today we drove to the nearby Malta Aviation Museum in Ta Qali, which inside had many old RAF/Royal Navy aircraft on display, ranging from a Spitfire to a DC-3. A Hawker Hurricane (Z3055) was undergoing restoration whilst I was there (For anymore info and pictures from this museum please see my thread on the historic forum – to follow). Later in the day we drove down to the city of Luqa and had lunch there. We then stopped of at the airport for around 45 minutes, allowing me to get a few shots, sadly there wasn’t a lot in at the time – Spanair MD-83, BA A321, Air China 747, Alitalia MD-87 and a Lufthansa A321. I have got a few shots to follow taken with my SLR – offering better zoom etc. Across the airport “perimeter” road was a sort of “dumping ground” for the stored aircraft, which comprised of mainly BAC 1-11 aircraft. Also there was an old DC-3, a DH Dash 7 carrying a Swiss registration number (HB-IVX) and a few Metro aircraft, one of which registered N3084W. One of the BAC 1-11’s later flew out of Malta; VP-CMI flew to Mexico!! To join a privately owned airline out there.

Date 4/9/04 – Day 4:

Saturday – Malta more or less closes down on Saturday, not very many place open at all. We headed out to the Dingli Cliffs, on the south coast, but everything there was closed too. We stopped off at the Blue Grotto and had lunch. One place we knew which would be open though all day was Bugibba, so we spent the remainder of the day there.

Date 5/9/04 – Day 5:

As we had to hand the car back to hire company on the morning of day 5 (Sunday) we decided to go on one of the trips organised by the tour operator – as usual over priced and allowing very little time at each stop you make, but considering it was Sunday and Malta comes to a stand still, with it being the holy day etc we decided to go anyhow. The trip, lasting until 2pm, took us to the South Eastern corner of the island, one place we didn’t visit whilst having the car – the market town of Marsaxlokk – where the locals were out in force buying up fish amongst other things. Later in the morning the trip took us back to the Blue Grotto where we had stopped for lunch a few days ago – but today we decided as we there we would go on a boat into the blue grotto caves. (See pictures below). In the afternoon, seeing as it’s only across the raod from the hotel, we got on the ferry and went over to Gozo for awhile. Very cheaply priced ferry at just around £4 each for a return crossing!

Date 6/9/04 – Day 6:

A day of rest on the beach… so nothing to report.

Date 7/9/04 – Day 7:

Home time! 🙁 Checked out of the room at 11am, and had the whole day spare seeing as our flight wasn’t until 21:05. So we hopped on a bus and headed for Valetta to have a proper look round, as we didn’t get much time the other day. It was pretty much a rainy day, so we didn’t see much of it then. But what I did see was nice. We managed to get round to the Grand Harbour (pictures below).
Back at the hotel, our coach arrived to pick us up at 18:15 and we were at the airport by 19:30. Check-in seemed a long process, que wise anyhow. Luckily this time there was no pat down on me, or a bag search – phew! :p Our plane was already in by the time we got through to the departure gate – again it was G-OOAS! Snore! Outside on the tarmac along with AS, was G-BYAD, G-XLAA, 9H-AEJ, G-TTIB and a small Cessna Biz-jet. Boarding was quick and straight forward. We were taxiing out to the runway in no-time. The excel 737 was ahead of us in the take-off que, also heading back to LGW. Seemed funny that it went before us, as it wasn’t supposed to go until 10 minutes after our flights (FCA859D) had taken off. Whilst taxiing to the runway, I saw N720JR from the plane, one of only 7? I think (mark?) Boeing 720 left flying in the world today, parked over on the biz-jet apron. We took off to the east and made a turn to the north, heading back up to the north of the Island, over flying the resort where I was staying.
We routed back over Gozo, heading over Sicily and onto France. From our plane we saw one of the most amazing storms over the coast of Tunisia – golden lightning! Once over Paris we routed back the normal way to LGW, over flying Brighton etc. The inflight movie this time was “The Stepford wives” Which in all honesty wasnt a bad film, it had its funny moments. The meal was also alot better on the return flight – bangers and mash. 😀
Upon a smooth landing at LGW, we taxied past the new Kuzu Cargo airlines A300 (TC-ABK), G-EZEB and TF-ARO – sadly no longer in the Olympic livery.

Oh well, after the long report here some pics.

Enjoy. 😀

In no order:

1. G-OZBH on stand at LGW.
2. G-TTIB Being towed to stand at LGW.
3. Overview of Paris
4. Orly airport from 34,000ft up.
5. Geneva Airport – well only just – sorry for the hazey look, but it is there! :p
6. Mont blanc.
7. The UK South Coast.
8. The minging outward bound meal! ewwwww!
9. A malta bus, one of the very old types – at the Paradise bay harbour.
10. – G-MOND At LGW.