MIA record figures spill into winter months

A five-month streak of exceptional performance by the Malta International Airport has culminated in a 17.5% increase in passenger movements during October.

Compared to October 2012, passenger movements increased to 409,575 passengers, a figure only matched in June during last year. "Our peak summer figures are now spilling into winter, showing a positive change in seasonality. For the first time ever, September and October reached figures previously recorded during peak months. " Malta International Airport CEO Markus Klaushofer said.

Traffic from the UK grew by 2.4% while traffic from Germany - the second biggest market - grew by 47.7%. France, Italy and Spain registered growths of 29.8%, 21.1% and 15.6% respectively. Aircraft movements and seat capacity also increased by 14.8% and 15.2% respectively over the same period last year.

The average seat load factor duplicate increased by 1.5%, reaching 81.6% while the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) increased by 13.7% and cargo mail increased by 4.7 per cent.

Between January and October, there were over 3.5 million passenger movements, an increase of 9.9% compared to last year.

Airport traffic broke records every month this year and September and October reached previously unmatched figures only recorded during peak months.