Castlebar-born solicitor Fiona Healy was standing in Letterkenny bus station on her way home from a funeral in November 2010. It was a miserable winter’s evening and the rain was pouring down when her phone rang. It was her cousin Brendan calling from (sunny) Malta to tell her about a job on the island he thought she might be interested in.
At the time, Healy was working in a small legal practice in Dublin, mainly doing conveyancing.
“The recession had hit, my workload had diminished significantly and the thought of moving to a Mediterranean island with 300 days of sunshine was very inviting,” says Healy, who had previously spent three years with McCann Fitzgerald specialising in commercial property.
“Malta had just passed some innovative legislation to make the jurisdiction more attractive to airlines and they were planning a big push to bring in new registration business – much as they had done with the yacht register, which is one of the largest in the world,” Healy says.
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“I had no aviation experience at the time, but as the authorities there were just beginning to develop the sector it was an ideal time to educate myself and enter the market. I set up Aircraft Corporate Services on behalf of the Alpine Group, to provide legal assistance to clients for the registration of aircraft, in 2011.
“I figured I would give it a few years before returning to Ireland. However, I hadn’t expected to love working in aviation quite as much as I did. Now I can’t imagine working in any other sector,” adds Healy, whose interests outside work include travel, yoga and Pilates.
Healy has now been in Malta for 13 years apart from a short stint working in Canada and the UK. “I really missed living in the Med and the variety of having different clients, so I decided to go back to Malta and set up my own aviation consultancy, FCF Assets, in 2015,” she says. “It was a risky move at the time as I had signed a lease on an apartment and set up the business without any clients. Fortunately, I had my first solo project within a month.
“Business aviation is very much a global community and my contacts have been incredibly helpful. I don’t have a website and all my business is by word of mouth,” adds Healy, who lives in Sliema, about 20 minutes from the Maltese capital, Valletta,
Her job involves project-managing start-ups by business jet operators, commercial airlines (large and small), helicopter operators and, more recently, drones, and is by her own admission “very niche”. She also helps outsource partners for operating and maintaining aircraft to get established in Malta.
“I assist with business strategy and act as a conduit to the civil aviation directorate, customs and other Maltese government departments. I guide my clients through the steps required to expedite the certification of an airline and assist post-certification on a variety of issues,” Healy says.
“I am exceptionally proud of my years spent contributing to the aviation sector here, having facilitated the addition of eight airlines and 67 aircraft to the Malta registry to date. I am currently working on my ninth airline project, which I hope to complete in November. My tenth should be ready to start in Q1 of next year. When I started here there were 12 airlines. Now there are 52 and growing.”
There’s a very strong Irish business community here also, which is great, and there’s an easy humour between Irish people that you don’t always get with other nationalities
— Fiona Healy
Healy says the Maltese are “incredibly business minded”, pointing out that as there are no natural resources on the island they have to bring commerce in.
“Malta has successfully made itself a massive hub for financial services, fund administration, pensions and gaming and there are over 500 gaming companies on the island,” she says. “The Maltese are very good at identifying sectors that would be beneficial for the economy and that will bring in different sectors and skills.
“This was the idea behind the aircraft registration Act. The legislation also made it an attractive location for aircraft operators, not just registration, so over time it has also become more a centre for airline operations.”
Healy says one of the big advantages of working in Malta is its compact size. “It means you have more access to those you need to talk to in order to carry out your role successfully,” she says. “When I first moved here I was able to call the gentleman who had actually drafted the aviation legislation I was dealing with if I had questions or needed any clarification.
“I now serve on the executive committee for aviation and aerospace as part of the chamber of commerce and that gives me the opportunity to contribute to discussions on what the aviation industry needs to grow with government ministers and aviation advisory committees.”
Healy loves living in Malta. Apart from its history, rich culture and the sunshine, she cites the lower cost of living, the international focus and the ease of doing business (English is an official language) as the reasons why Malta appeals to her so much.
“There’s a very strong Irish business community here also, which is great, and there’s an easy humour between Irish people that you don’t always get with other nationalities,” she says. “I miss my family and the green spaces of home but not the driving rain in the west of Ireland that creates the green space.”
