Airport traffic in June surpasses 600,000 for first time

Passenger movements at the Malta International Airport (MIA) reached the 663,088 mark in June, exceeding 600,000 for the first time in the airport’s history.

MIA said that summer had once again proved to be busy, with traffic increasing by 14.6%, averaging 156 daily take-offs and landings.

It said growth in passenger numbers was observed in parallel with a 15.1% increase in aircraft movements and a 14.4% increase in seat capacity. Despite this significant growth in the number of seats available, seat load factor (SLF) remained at 82.7%, MIA said.

Furthermore, it said that double-digit growth had been recorded in four our of the top five markets, namely: the United Kingdom (+14.6%), Italy (+18.9%), France (+17.8%) and Spain (+49.1%).

Germany, MIA said, was the only country amongst Malta Airport’s top five markets to register a decrease (-3.0%) during the month of June, adding that this was due to a reduced schedule by TUI cruises, affecting the “cruise and fly passenger traffic throughout”.

Passenger movements to and from the Spanish market increased substantially following the introduction of three completely new routes to Malaga, Seville and Bilbao, and an enhanced flight frequency on the Barcelona route as part of the airport’s summer schedule, MIA said.