1.8 million passengers passed through Malta International Airport this winter

1,873,599 passengers passed through the Malta International Airport terminal between the months of November and March, resulting in an upturn of 17% over the same period last year.

In a statement, MIA said that while summer remains high season for traffic through the terminal, the airport has experienced increasingly busy winters. This, MIA said, resulted  from collaborative efforts to promote Malta as a year-round destination.

A monthly passenger profile exercise carried out among inbound, non-business travellers compiled by MISCO Ltd revealed that for the stretch between November and February, culture and weather were the top two reasons that attracted tourists to Malta. An encouraging 97% went on to add that the island lived up to their expectations.

Growth in passenger movements was registered in parallel with an increase of 16.6% in aircraft movements and an increase of 18.1% in seat capacity; both stemming from an enhanced winter flight schedule offering five new routes and increased frequencies on existing ones. On the other hand, seat load factor (SLF) for the season dropped marginally and stood at 77.2%.

Malta International Airport’s top markets were the United Kingdom (+11.6 per cent), Italy (+12.9 per cent), Germany (+14.7 per cent), France (+20.9 per cent), and Belgium (-3.7 per cent), cumulatively accounting for over 1.3 million passenger movements of the airport’s total traffic for winter.

While all winter months experienced double-digit growth, March saw the strongest increase at 22.5%. The Easter holidays and the launch of a summer schedule offering more than 100 destinations were important contributing factors to the significantly improved performance observed last month.

With summer now having started, Malta International Airport has inaugurated 12 new routes operated by different airlines for the season, and will be launching more routes in April. Busier days are expected, but with eight additional check-in desks and a new Central Security Area in operation as part of the company’s Terminal Reconfiguration Project, the airport is in a better position to handle the increase in traffic.