The Malta Souvenir Bus - L-ISKAFI

As a company, we believe that the traditional Maltese bus is one of the assets that truly provided Malta with its own identity. The Malta Souvenir Buses are traditional buses which used to operate as the main source of public transport back before Arriva took over. Malta bus registration No. 5294 was previously registered as FBY 798. The AEC Reliance was built in Malta back in 1964, the chassis of which were imported from England..The body has been customized by Mr. Michael Barbara Body-Builder, situated in Luqa. The bus used to be one of the fastest vehicles on the Maltese roads and it was for this reason that this bus was nicknamed ‘L-ISKAFI’, a word that originated from the word skiff, which means high-performance boat.

This magnificent bus is owned by Andrew Abela and has been so since 1981. Andrew Abela is a businessman that started his business in the Malta transport industry when he made the acquisition of this bus, he then proceeded to expand his operations and at present, the company provides a myriad of services for clients to choose, no matter what kind of transportation they are looking for. In 2019 we also added another souvenir bus to our fleet, a Bedford manufactured in 1932 which was used for the Birkirkara route, it was then sold to a Gozitan and used for public transport in Gozo. This bus was eventually acquired by our company in 2010 and used in Maltese roads up until 2016. In 2019 it was converted into another souvenir bus and sprayed the colour of the Gozo public buses which stopped back in 2011.