I'll look into it. I actually did try to find flights from JA to Heathrow, but all flights I found was to Gatwick.

I didn't know that you work at an UK airport - if you come across this topic at work, kindly drop me a few lines with any new helpful information. It's strange that you haven't really heard about the airside transit visa, but then again I guess it depends on where in the airport you work. I wish it was as simple as him being able to just fly in and get on the plane to Malta without the transit visa, but I dare not take the risk to advise him that. We'll just play it by the rules, be honest and hopefully they'll approve his app.

Many thanks again