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MIA looks on to 'consolidate' 2010 record results for 2011
Malta International Airport is forecasting a consolidation of the record number of 3.29 million passengers achieved last year, CEO Julian Jaeger said at a news conference analysing the results achieved in 2010.
Jaeger said that the forecast for 2011 is being based on various considerations, which include the fact that 2010 achieved an absolute record and consequently, more difficult to exceed; Air Malta’s announced available seats and the premise that it will be using 11 aircraft, the known new destinations for 2011, as well as the Cruise and Fly operation kicking off later on in May.
The new routes for 2011 will be the Belfast operation by easyJet as of next month; Lufthansa’s new route to Munich in Germany from April and airberlin’s new operation to Nuremberg in Germany and Basel in Switzerland, both in April.
Mr Jaeger referred to the Traffic Results of 2010. Aircraft movements at MIA increased by 2,632 which is 10% more when compared to 2009 whilst seat capacity increased by more than 444,000, equivalent to +10.6%.
Air Malta was the major carrier at MIA operating 51% of traffic equivalent to 1,681,197 passengers, registering an increase of 2.6% on figures registered in 2009. It is followed by Ryanair with a traffic share of 20.5% equivalent to 675,637 passengers meaning an increase of 52% and easyJet with a traffic share of 9.2% equivalent to 303,000 passengers meaning an increase of 66%.
MIA’s main markets for 2010 were the UK with a share of 31.4% translating into 1,032,610 passengers (+3.3%) followed by Italy and Germany with 19.5% or 641,814 passengers (+28.8%) and 12.8% or 422,498 passengers (+1.4%) respectively.
Legacy carriers have maintained their passenger numbers, although they lost on their market share (71% in 2009; 62% in 2010) to Low Cost operations (23% in 2009; 32% in 2010). Charter operations have maintained the same share (6%) of the business as that of 2009.
Jaeger concluded that although expressing satisfaction at the results achieved in 2010 by all the stakeholders involved in the tourism industry, he invited everyone to remain cautious on the outcome of 2011, as both the summer schedule and the 2011/2012 winter schedule are still unclear.
