Malta International Airport plc - 2014 Traffic Results & Forecast for 2015

On 23 January, Malta International Airport plc issued a company announcement revealing the 2014 traffic results and the passenger forecast for 2015.

During 2014, MIA registered a 6.4% increase in passenger movements to a record 4,290,304 movements reflecting the 4.8% increase in aircraft movements which consequently led to an equivalent increase in seat capacity to 5.38 million seats. Furthermore, the airlines flying through Malta’s only airport also managed to register an increase in the seat load factor to 79.7% compared to 78.5% in 2013.

The announcement also explained that the airport’s four major markets registered an increase in the number of passenger movements with double digit increases from France (+17%) and Italy (12.1%) followed by the UK (+6.1%) and Germany (+3.2%). Meanwhile, the number of passengers from Spain (the company’s fifth largest market) dropped by 25.8% reflecting the weakening demand in Spanish outbound leisure tourism which resulted in a significant drop in seat capacity.

Mr Alan Borg, the recently appointed CEO ad interim, explained that 2014 was a great year for MIA given that the record numbers were achieved in spite of the closure of Libya and the tensions in Russia.  Mr Borg further added that the record growth in each month of the year shows that the island’s strategy to attract more traffic during the shoulder months is reaping the desired results. Mr Borg also praised Air Malta, the company’s largest client, for mitigating these impacts by successfully redeploying their capacity and recovering most of the affected traffic.

2015 Forecast

Following a record 2014, MIA is forecasting a further 2% growth in passenger numbers to yet another record of circa 4.37 million passenger movements on the back of further capacity being deployed to Malta as well as a number of new airlines and routes, including Aegean, Finnair, Jet2.com and Swiss.

Commenting on the year ahead, Mr Borg explained that MIA remains focused on increasing traffic during the winter months and attracting more visitors from new markets to the island.

During 2015, MIA will also be undertaking €4 million worth of investments, most of which are already under way. These include improvements to the runway, apron and taxiway (€0.95 million), expansion of the terminal building in the non-Schengen arrivals section (€2 million), a new emergency operations centre (€0.1 million), a reorganisation of the high voltage network (€0.52 million) and an investment in back-up standby power generators (€0.45 million).