• February’s 18 per cent growth, strongest increase of winter period so far
• New winter routes and increased flight frequencies boost traffic from top markets

Ending with a total of 349,430 passenger movements, last month was Malta International Airport’s busiest February to date.

Traffic for the month grew by a significant 18 per cent over the previous year, peaking on the 18th of February when the airport handled 15,189 passengers. Whilst all winter months so far have registered double-digit growth, February’s increase was the strongest.

This was observed in parallel with an increase in both aircraft movements and seat capacity, which grew by 14 per cent and 15.5 per cent, respectively. Despite a significant addition in the number of available seats on flights to and from the airport, seat load factor (SLF) gained 1.6 percentage points to reach 78.5 per cent.

The top contributors to February’s traffic were the United Kingdom (+16%), Italy (+14%), Germany (+7%), Belgium (-2%), and France (+19%), cumulatively accounting for 71 per cent of the total passenger movements recorded.

These markets, except for Belgium, registered varying levels of growth, stemming from a winter flight schedule offering better connections. The increase in passenger numbers from the United Kingdom and Italy can be mainly attributed to the launch of the Belfast, London Southend, Naples and Comiso routes.

On the other hand, traffic from Germany and France was boosted by better flight frequencies on the Munich and Paris Orly routes, respectively.
The publication of these positive traffic results follows Tuesday’s announcement by Airports Council International that Malta International Airport had claimed the second place from among European counterparts in its Airport Service Quality awards.

Malta International Airport is now looking ahead to unveiling a new flight schedule boasting more than 100 destinations towards the end of March to coincide with the start of summer for the aviation industry.