The year was off to a strong start for Malta International Airport, with January traffic growing by a noteworthy 14.2 per cent to surpass the 400,000-passenger mark for the first time.

418,096 passengers passed through Malta International Airport during the first month of the year; a total comparable to the traffic handled by the airport during its peak summer month ten years ago.

Traffic peaked on the fourth day of January – reaching almost 21,000 passenger movements – as many headed back home at the end of the festive period.

Seat capacity increased by 11.3 per cent, while seat load factor (SLF), which measures seat occupancy on board flights to and from Malta International Airport, gained 1.8 percentage points to reach 71.0 per cent.

January saw Italy (+9.8 per cent) top the airport’s list of drivers of passenger traffic again after 11 months. This market was followed by the United Kingdom (+5.1 per cent), Germany (-9.6 per cent), France (+39.4 per cent) and Spain (+12.5 per cent).   

The French market’s phenomenal growth rate can be partly attributed to the fact that the Lyon and Nantes routes are being operated in the winter months for the first time.

Published on: 07.02.2020