MIA traffic hits all-time record

Passenger movements at Malta Airport in August reached an all-time record of 461,153, breaking the record achieved in July.

The Malta International Airport (MIA) said a 7.9% increase was registered when compared to August 2011.

In August, seat capacity also hit an all-time record of 536,632, an increase of 7.5%. The average seat load factor also increased by 0.2% to reach a record 85.9%.

Last month, aircraft movements grew by 6.6% over the corresponding period last year, whilst the maximum take-off weight was 8.6% higher than that registered in August last year.

MIA also noted that another positive result was achieved in cargo and mail with a 14.6% increase over the same month in 2011.

All the core markets registered increases during the month of August with Germany and France growing significantly by 14.7% and 14.6% respectively, while Spain and Italy recorded an increase of 6.2% and 5.7% respectively.

Passenger movements from the United Kingdom were more or less the same with a 0.2% increase.

The results for the first eight months of the year, in terms of passenger movements, show an increase of 3.7% when compared to the same period last year, totalling 2,487,903 passenger movements.

The increase of 2.8% in the average seat load factor was the main driver of this result, whilst the seat capacity and aircraft movements remained more or less unchanged; the former registering no change whereas the latter registering a 0.1% drop for the period January to August 2012.