Malta International Airport plc - March Traffic Results

On 2 April, Malta International Airport plc published the March 2015 traffic results revealing yet another record month with 275,334 passenger movements during the month under review, representing a 4.5% increase over the same month in 2014. The increased passenger traffic in March was due to a 2.2% increase in seat capacity combined with a 1.8 percentage point increase in the seat load factor to 79.9%.

The airport operator also stated that the UK and Italian markets registered remarkable growth of just below 10%. The French market also registered a 2.7% increase whilst the German market contracted by 7.4% due to the reduced capacity on the Frankfurt route. The announcement also highlighted the growth in traffic from Turkey which increased by 74.4% over 2014.

Winter Season Review: March represents the end of the Company’s winter season which runs for five months from November to March each year. During the five month period ending March 2015, passenger numbers grew by 4.5% reflecting the co-ordinated effort of tourism stakeholders and the island’s strategy to attract more visitors during the winter season.

Q1 2015 Review: During the first quarter of 2015, passenger movements at MIA grew by 5.6%.

MIA’s CEO Alan Borg commented that the positive results achieved in the first quarter of 2015 motivate the Company to keep working towards further growth throughout the year. In this respect, Mr Borg noted that in 2015 MIA will welcome five new airlines (Aegean, Finnair, Jet2.com, Swiss and Transaero Airlines) and add three new destinations thereby giving the travelling public greater choice, flexibility and convenience.

2015 Forecast: Earlier this year, MIA announced a forecast of a 2% increase in passenger numbers for 2015 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, as well as increased frequencies on existing routes.