2.5 million passengers travel through MIA in 2021, 45% increase over 2020

2.5 million passengers travelled through Malta International Airport in 2021, a 45% increase over 2020 but still falling short of pre-pandemic levels, with just a 34.8% recovery on 2019.

Italy and the United Kingdom had the market’s biggest share with a combined 19%, followed by Germany, France and Poland.

“After the first half of the year, air travel started to gain momentum on the back of increased stability and an improvement in consumer confidence, with passenger movements for the third quarter of 2021 more than tripling over the previous quarter,” MIA said.

October was MIA’s best performing month with more than 428,000 passenger movements recorded, attributed to a delayed peak in the demand for leisure travel, spurred by the easing of travel requirements as the year progressed.

“The instant impact on air travel of the introduction of tighter restrictions towards the end of the year, once again highlighted that our industry’s recovery remains at the mercy of how governments respond to the changing epidemiological situation. The introduction of stricter and uneven entry requirements across Europe at the end of 2021 has already led to the cancellation of around 850 flights for the first quarter of 2022,” MIA CEO Alan Borg said.

He remarked that Summer 2022 is expected to be characterised by competition among similar destinations, in view of vaccination uptake across Europe continues to increase. Borg urged government to shift focus on a post-COVID strategy, which according to him could give the industry confidence to invest in businesses.

Malta’s recovery for the period between January and November 2021 stood at 33.5%, lagging behind that of other Southern European countries such as Greece (52.5%), Cyprus (44.3%), Spain (41.7%), and Portugal (40.3%), despite Malta International Airport’s success in retaining more than 70 per cent of its connections for 2019 throughout the year under review.

“Given the challenges that persist in the first quarter of 2022 and the instability within which the aviation industry continues to operate, Malta International Airport plc does not have sufficient data to provide the market with reliable guidance at this time,” MIA warned.