Former Air Malta boss Giordimaina takes up PanAfriqiyah position

Former Air Malta CEO and Lufthansa Technik boss Louis Giordimaina has been head-hunted by the Libyan owner of Afriqiyah Airways to develop his Malta-based subsidiary PanAfriqiyah.

Giordimaina was appointed on 11 November by Afriqiyah boss Abubaker Elfortia, according to Maghreb Confidential, together with Nicole Frei, a former executive at Dublin-base CityJet.

The PanAfriqiyah subsidiary is expected to enable Elfortia to fly his operation by getting round the ban on Libyan companies operating in European airspace.

Giordimaina is currently head of fleet management company Hyperion Aviation, a Maltese charter operator that flies Bombardier Challengers, Gulfstreams, and other executive jet airlines. He also headed Eurojet for a year.

PanAfriqiyah is now under control of a Belize-registered company called Glencor International.

Louis Giodimaina tendered his resignation from Air Malta in 2014. The former Air Malta chief engineer, who had returned to the national airline as chief executive in early November 2013, was said to have clashed with the new Air Malta chairman Maria Micallef.

Giordimaina has over 38 years’ experience in the aviation industry, having joined Air Malta’s engineering department in 1975 as an aircraft engineer. He occupied various positions in the engineering department, with additional active roles in the airline strategic planning, aircraft purchasing, sale and leasing as well as contract negotiations. In 1994 he was appointed the first Maltese chief engineer of the national airline.

He was also instrumental in the setting-up of Lufthansa Technik Malta, a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Air Malta, of which he was appointed CEO in 2002. He occupied this role until 2011 after which he was retained as director of the company until September 2013.

In 2006 he spearheaded Lufthansa Technik Malta’s expansion, which saw the construction of new hangars and facilities, with the local workforce climbing from 140 to 600, to become one of the major worldwide Maintenance and Repair Organisation (MRO) players.

In 2008 he was appointed chairman of the Water Services Corporation and in November 2011 he was appointed executive chairman of Enemalta. An aircraft engineer by profession, Giordimaina also read business management at Warwick University, UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.