Passenger traffic at MIA increased by 9.9% in May

Malta International Airport registered an increase of 9.9 per cent in passenger traffic over the same month last year, welcoming a record number of 441,943 passengers in May.

This figure is higher than the passenger numbers registered in the August peak of 2011 (427,575 passengers), just under four years ago.

The airport’s busy summer schedule includes two new routes to Helsinki and Warsaw, five new airlines and a number of additional frequencies when compared to last year.

In fact, aircraft movements and seat capacity both increased by 6.3 per cent when compared to last year. Meanwhile, the percentage of filled seats on each flight (seat load factor) increased from 76.4 per cent to 79 per cent in 2015.

“May’s traffic growth is in part the result of additional routes and airlines that are connecting our airport to more parts of the world. Summer also seems to have come early on a number of our more traditional routes, which saw record passengers for this time of year.

"This shows that our collaborated efforts with Government and the Malta Tourism Authority to continue to reduce the seasonality of our tourism market are working. These figures encourage us to keep investing in new markets while continuously enhancing the customer experience at the airport,” said Malta International Airport CEO Alan Borg.

In May, traffic from Germany rose significantly by 32.1 per cent as a result of Cruise and Fly operations starting two months ahead of last year. Excellent results were also registered in Italy, with a growth of 15.4 per cent.

The United Kingdom remains Malta’s largest tourism market, up by 1.5 per cent when compared to the same month last year. Meanwhile, the Netherlands joined May’s leading five markets, following a 15.4 per cent increase on the Amsterdam route.

Traffic to and from France dropped by 5.8 per cent due to the reduction of the Toulouse route.

Between January and May this year, Malta International Airport saw an increase of 6.5 per cent when compared to last year’s figures, hosting a total of 1,528,241 passengers so far.

Meanwhile, the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) rose by 3.6 per cent and cargo and mail decreased by 9.5 per cent.