August’s unparalleled passenger movements – 598,515 – have topped all traffic records previously established by the Malta International Airport.

This figure translates into a growth of 2.3% over last year, indicating that the airport was bustling with an average of 19,300 passengers a day.

The airport had initially projected that on its busiest day it would welcome an estimated 22,500 passengers. However, with the actual figures in hand, Malta International Airport can confirm that it marginally surpassed this figure and hosted 22,908 passengers. This figure – that exceeds the population of Malta’s biggest town, Birkirkara – was achieved while still maintaining smooth operations.

August’s numbers can be attributed to an increase in seat capacity, together with a high seat load factor (SLF) of 88.8%, which indicates that airlines were also more efficient in filling up the seats available, as more tourists chose to fly to Malta for their August break.

A glance at the airport’s top five markets shows that, last month, the majority of tourists who flocked to the Maltese islands came from the UK, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain, with the latter featuring as the fifth top driver of traffic to Malta for the second, consecutive month.

Healthy growth rates of 3.6% and 4.1% ensured that the UK and Italy respectively, retained their position as Malta International Airport’s top drivers of passenger traffic. Both these markets presently enjoy an enhanced network to Malta, following added flights on a number of routes such as Edinburgh and Catania and a new popular route to Palermo.

The markets recording the most significant growth, on the other hand, were Poland and Spain. Poland grew by 47% over last year after the introduction of Gdansk and Poznań brought Polish routes up to five. On the other hand, Spain recorded a 14.7% growth over 2015 due to a new connection from Madrid and increased capacity to Gerona.

Cargo and mail registered a decrease of 3.20% over the same month last year.