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Now that we are in the autumn season and winter is fast approaching, we do not want a repeat of what happened before, with Gozo isolated because of severe weather, and no ferry service running.

Ok, so we had fun watching the seaplane taking off and landing (splashdown) in Mgarr harbour, but lets be honest the seaplane is not really viable. The seaplane cannot land or take off on sea waves higher then one and half feet, otherwise it would topple over. If we were honest we would call it a river plane, because that is it’s purpose. And of course, we already know that it will not work in the winter

I was a huge fan of an airstrip, and I spoke about it at length to people in the know, we came to the conclusion that the land is just too hard to obtain, believe it or not, even for the government. Yes, even the government needs a permit from MEPA for such a project, and it costs a lot of money.

At one point I even suggested that they can pick up all the stone rubble that you will see all over Gozo and Malta, if gathered together an airport could be formed as an island offshore with a small bridge to it, but seriously…..

The only option left is to have a helicopter service again, now I realize that helicopters are not cheap to buy, but if the government or Air Malta cannot afford to buy one, surely they can lease one. Even better, why doesn’t the government throw the problem at the feet of these so called low cost airlines, tell them that there is another island besides Malta, and that they can provide the helicopter service lock, stock and barrel. If they keep it low cost the government is happy because they get their VAT receipts and the companies are happy providing another service and making money at the same time.

Surely it makes sense, since everything is in place, especially the landing pad in Xewkija just waiting for another helicopter to land there.

Toni Stivala