Hi Fly Malta started operations in early 2013 with one Airbus A340-600 formerly operated by Virgin Atlantic with one more pre-owned on order[1][2] and planned to start scheduled operations to destinations in North America. During 2015, all of the airlines' aircraft had been stored and in May 2015 the A340-600s were sold to Al Naser Airlines, a front company for Mahan Air.[3]
Hi Fly Malta was reactivated in September with the re-registration of one A340-300 from the parent Portuguese company on the Maltese Business Registry and a second A340-300 was added in early 2016 that had previously flown for Sri Lankan Airlines.[4] Several former Emirates A340-300 airframes were added in 2017.
In the summer of 2018, Hi Fly became the first airline to buy a secondhand Airbus A380 (flown previously by Singapore Airlines[5]), placing an order for two. In autumn 2017, Hi Fly, in a sponsorship of the Turn the Tide on Plastic yacht team in the Volvo Ocean Race, painted one of its A330s in a livery similar to the yacht, with the port side bearing a dirty oceans livery and the starboard side a clean oceans livery.[6][7] On 19 July 2018, its newly painted Airbus A380, registered as 9H-MIP, arrived at the Farnborough Airshow, carrying the Save the Coral Reefs livery.[8] Hi-Fly's A380 saw a brief lease to Norwegian Long Haul in August 2018, which operated the aircraft following engine problems with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.[9] Norwegian leased the A380 again in late 2018 to help deal with the passenger backlog as a result of the Gatwick Airport drone incident. In November 2020, the company announced that the A380 will be retired at the end of its three-year lease period and on 17 December 2020, the A380 made its final flight to Toulouse.[10]
One A319 was chartered to the now-defunct Brazilian Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos. In November 2021, it landed at Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport and re-registered as PS-SIL to be converted to passenger configuration at TAP Hangar, but this never happened. After 3 months in Brazil the aircraft was scheduled to fly back to Europe and had its registration reverted back to 9H-XFW.[11]
Destinations
Hi Fly Malta has no scheduled destinations. Its planes operate on a charter and ACMI basis. One of its Airbus A340-300s (Registered 9H-TQM) was reconfigured for Swiss Space Systems prior to its liquidation, and retained a black livery with the Swiss Space Systems logo on the horizontal stabilizer prior to its retirement,[4] while its other airframes are unmarked except for registration.