Sixth consecutive record for passenger movements at Malta airport

Passenger movements at the Malta International Airport (MIA) in September reached 407,917 - the highest number ever-registered in September - registering the sixth consecutive record month.

The MIA said the increase in passenger movements, when compared to the same month last year, is equivalent to an increase of 6.6%.

The results for the first nine months of the year, in terms of passenger movements, show an increase of 4.1% when compared to the same period last year, totalling 2,896,724 passenger movements.

The increase of 2.8 percentage points in the seat load factor - which for the period January to September 2011 stands at 78.9% - together with the marginal increase of 0.4% in seat capacity was the main driver of this result.

 "This record result in September was achieved with an increase of 3.6% in seat capacity over the same period last year, with a total of 476,074 seats," the MIA said.

In September, the Spanish market registered an increase of 14.7%, while the French, Italian and UK markets grew slightly, by 2.5%, 0.5% and 0.2% respectively.

The only main market to register a decrease in September when compared to same period last year was the German one, with a decrease of 5%.

In the same month, aircraft movements increased by 3.5% over the corresponding period last year, whereas the average seat load factor increased by 2.5 percentage points to reach 85.7%.

The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) was 2.9% higher than that registered in September last year, whilst cargo and mail was 3.6% lower than that recorded during the same month in 2011.