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At a press conference convened this morning Malta International Airport has formalised its 2009 traffic results ending a rather crucial year with -6.1% on its passenger movements when compared to 2008. This translates into a total of 2.92 million passenger movements.
In January MIA had forecast its end of year traffic results for 2009 at -5.5% over 2008, but given the global economic crises this was revised in July to -6.8%. Nevertheless when compared to 2007, given that 2008 was a record year, the drop in 2009 was of 1.7%.
Aircraft movements at MIA decreased by 765 which is -2.8% when compared to 2008 whilst seat capacity decreased by -2.4%.
Air Malta was the major carrier at MIA operating 56% of traffic equivalent to 1,638,641 passengers and increasing its market share particularly on schedule operations though loosing out significantly on charters. It is followed by Ryanair with a traffic share of 15% equivalent to 444,527 passengers meaning an increase of 13% and EasyJet with a traffic share of 6% equivalent to 182,821 passengers meaning an increase of 8%.
MIA’s main markets for 2009 were the UK with a share of 34.2% translating into 999,631 passengers (-6.7%) followed by Italy and Germany with 17.1% or 498,413 passengers (+2.9%) and 14.3% or 416,583 passengers (-12.7%) respectively. The most noteworthy destination was Cyprus with 59,311 passengers (+122.2%).
Legacy carriers have lost 3% of traffic mostly to Low Cost operations in 2009. Charter carriers have suffered a dramatic drop of 33.3% compared to 2008.
A number of new routes will commence operation in 2010. BMI will launch their operation from East Midlands, whereas EasyJet have announced the opening of their Liverpool, Milan and Rome routes whilst Ryanair will start flying to Leeds Bradford and Bournemouth. Moreover in the next Summer months Norwegian will resume its operations from Oslo and Copenhagen.
The positive +6.5% registered by MIA in December seems to indicate a light at the end of the tunnel which warrants a forecast for passenger movements in 2010, based on the most recent flight schedules, to show an increase of 2.8% over 2009, translating into just over the 3 million passenger mark.
MIA’s Chief Executive Officer Julian Jaeger remarked “all in all, and when one considers the global scenario of 2009, MIA’s performance may be considered acceptable and may be better than many expected, however the results must not be seen as the fruit of sheer coincidence but more appropriately that of concerted and constant efforts together with the MTA and other stakeholders in order to overcome negative trends that have effected our markets as part of a global economy. In this regard we may look at 2010 optimistically and also expecting some growth”.
In the course of the Press Conference Julian Jaeger also referred to MIA’s security services following the 25th December 2009 attempted terrorist attack. MIA’s CEO said that MIA is working closely with OMAS and in accordance with ACI continuously monitoring and where necessary modifying security measures in line with international levels of threat. However Julian Jaeger assured that the baseline security standards at MIA are fully in accordance with national international requirements. Indeed, though MIA does not operate direct flights to the US, security measures are being stepped-up with more frequent patrolling of the airport and the improvement of the configuration of the security area with a set-up that should ease crowding at peak times. Moreover other additional security measures that cannot be made public because of their sensitive nature, have also been implemented.
With regards to the Body Scanners which at present are internationally in question, MIA has and is still examining the introduction of new scanning equipment. Nevertheless further to having undertaken specialised consultation it maintains that the equipment available so far is still not sufficiently developed and therefore in conjunction with the relevant authorities, MIA is scrutinising all available options.
Communications Department
18th January 2010
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