Xewkija Heliport GZM / LMMG

Sole air gateway of Gozo, Malta's second island; no fixed-wing airport exists on Gozo. The facility is two 22 m helipads linked by a 174 m asphalt/concrete strip, runway direction 10/28, elevation 322 ft. There is no scheduled commercial service: current traffic is on-request charter with Heli Link Malta and HeliFly's Malta, plus a permanently based air-ambulance helicopter used for Gozo-Malta hospital transfers since August 2016, which replaced earlier ad hoc use of Armed Forces of Malta helicopters for the same transfers. Scheduled Malta-Gozo passenger helicopter service ran 1990-2004 (Malta Air Charter) and 2005-2006 (Helicopteros del Sureste) before ceasing in October 2006, and a Valletta-Mgarr seaplane service ran 2007-2012; a 1990s proposal for a separate Gozo fixed-wing airstrip was rejected on environmental grounds and none has been built since. A revived government project would extend the strip to 445 m, including 30 m safety areas at each end, for small fixed-wing STOL aircraft of up to about 15 seats: the Environment and Resources Authority issued environmental screening approval in August 2024 and the Planning Authority board approved the permit on 10 October 2024, conditional on the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage completing an archaeological evaluation of the site before the permit can be executed. Government targeted autumn 2026 for launch, including a subsidised Malta-Gozo air link, and repeated the pledge during the May 2026 general election campaign, but as of March 2026 the first-phase works tender had not yet been issued. As of September 2026 the facility remains the original 174 m heliport, with no confirmed date for the extended airfield or for any scheduled passenger service. No public annual traffic figures are published for the heliport; a 'scheduled service' flag in some aviation databases reflects coding classification rather than an actual timetable.