Malta airport registers 2.4% increase in traffic

Malta International Airport registered a 2.4 per cent increase in traffic last month, hosting a total of 463,215 passengers.

The growth is seen in light of the closure of the Libyan airspace since mid-July, which has resulted in a passenger drop within this market.

“These figures are a great follow-up to the half a million passengers we hosted in August, the airport’s best month ever recorded. We are pleased to see the airport continue performing steadily,” said Markus Klaushofer, Chief Executive Officer at the Malta International Airport.

During September, the total number of landings and take-offs at the airport increased by 0.9 per cent to 3,199 while the number of people that could be flown to and from Malta (seat capacity) grew marginally by 1.1 per cent to 540,423.

France was the market to register the largest growth at 11.1 per cent, thanks to increased demand on the Paris route. Traffic from Italy and UK grew by 8.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, Spain and Germany saw a decrease of 11 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively. In the case of latter, it is to be noted that when compared to September last year, September 2014 had one less turnaround of TUI Cruises, one on each of the 4 Sundays, as opposed to the 5 Sundays which fell in September 2013.

Between January and September this year, Malta International Airport saw an increase of 7.2 per cent when compared to last year’s figures, hosting a total of 3,385,808 passengers so far this year.

The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) increased by 0.4 per cent and cargo mail increased by a healthy 7.9 per cent.