COVID-19 shutdown costs MIA €52 million in revenue

Malta International Airport (MIA) suffered a loss of over €52 million in revenue in the first nine quarters of this year, when compared to the same period last year.

The company said on Wednesday that Q1 – Q3 revenue had dropped from €77,275,444 in 2019 to €24,286,434 this year, a 67.7% drop.

The company’s performace continues to be severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on both its aviation and non-aviation activities.

The aviation industry has now entered the winter period, which is expected to be the most challenging in living memory globally.

In October, MIA welcomed 110,346 passengers, bringing year-to- date traffic up to 1,661,700 passenger movements. This translates into a drop of 73.8% when compared to the same period in 2019.

The company said it is confident that its financial resilience amassed over the past decade together with the right team of employees put it in a good position to continue facing COVID-related challenges and eventually emerge from this crisis.

MIA’s cost-cutting and liquidity preservation programme, which was implemented by the company in April 2020, has enabled it to register a significant decrease in both its staff costs and operating costs.

The lowering of staff costs by 24.1% for the first three quarters of 2020 resulted from a reduction in management and employee wages from April until July 2020, together with contributions from the government COVID-19 wage scheme.

MIA also registered a decrease of 38.4% in operating costs, which resulted from several measures taken by the company, including the revision of its maintenance programme to focus solely on essential works.