Airport winter traffic growth outpaces summer increase

Winter traffic growth outpaced growth in traffic during summer at the Malta International Airport (MIA), as the company forecasts that 10.5 million passengers will move through the airport in 2026.

The company welcomed the fact that its efforts to increase Malta's accessibility during the colder months proved successful, as winter traffic grew by 16% year-on-year, beating summer growth by 5%.

In a statement, the MIA explained that in 2025, the company diversified its connectivity and was connected to 111 airports across 37 markets. The airport was served by 34 airlines, with four new airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Qatar Airways, SAS and Volotea.

The company said that it actively sought to pair high volumes of low-cost carriers, such as Ryanair, Wizz Air, and easyJet, with the extensive network reach of flag carriers. In fact, in 2025, three of the four new airlines were flag carriers, with Qatar Airways providing a link to a global hub in Doha, while SAS and LOT strengthened connections to Scandinavia and Poland respectively.

The United Kingdom regained its status as the airport's largest market in 2025, accounting for 20% of total traffic. The 17% year-on-year growth was supported by new routes to Glasgow, London Southend, and Liverpool, alongside expanded summer operations from Jet2.

Most notably, Poland emerged as the fastest-growing market with a 48.9% increase in traffic. Now ranked as the third-largest market, Poland’s growth was fuelled by LOT Polish Airlines' return to the Warsaw route and expanded services from both Ryanair and Wizz Air.

Meanwhile, Italy, Germany, and France made up the rest of the MIA’s top five markets.

A major highlight for the upcoming year is the introduction of Malta’s first long-haul link to North America, with Delta Air Lines scheduled to launch a new service to New York.