Malta International Airport plc - January Traffic Results

On 5 February, Malta International Airport plc published the January 2014 traffic results. The statistics reveal an 11.2% increase in passenger movements when compared to the same month last year. During the month of January, a new record of 199,354 passengers used the air terminal. The increased passenger traffic was due to a 10.6% increase in seat capacity combined with a 0.3 percentage point increase in the seat load factor to 66.6%. MIA’s CEO Markus Klaushofer commented that the Company is pleased to see that the positive trend enjoyed in 2013 has spilled over into the first month of 2014.

The airport operator also stated that double-digit growth was registered by the Libyan (+59.3%), Italian (+10.8% on the back of increased capacity in the routes servicing Northern Italy) and French (+10.1%) markets. Passengers from the UK also increased by 6.2% reflecting the growth registered on the Liverpool, Edinburgh and Bristol routes. Similarly, the German market registered a 5.4% increase.

MIA is forecasting that passenger numbers for 2014 will be 2% higher than those registered in 2013 to yet another annual record of over 4.1 million passengers on the back of a further 2.6% growth in seat capacity to 5.3 million seats. The growth in passenger numbers is largely based on the introduction of four new routes, as follows: British Airways to Gatwick, London; flyNiki to Vienna; Transavia to Nantes; and Vueling to Rome.