Malta International Airport plc - Interim Directors’ Statement

On 15 May, Malta International Airport plc issued its Interim Directors’ Statement updating the market on its performance since the start of the current financial year.

During the period under review, the financial position of the Company remained sound and the performance has been marginally better than expected.

Passenger traffic for the first four months of the year grew by 5.1% to 1,085,782 passenger movements reflecting the 2.3% increase in seat capacity (in turn commensurate with the growth in aircraft movements) coupled with a 2 percentage point increase in the seat load factor to 76.1%. Looking ahead, the outlook for the summer season looks positive with five new airlines starting operations to Malta. Finnair will improve the country’s connectivity in Scandinavia with the start of two weekly flights from Helsinki. Jet2 will operate five routes from the UK, Russian airline Transaero will be operating a weekly flight from Moscow whilst Greek private airline Aegean will introduce three weekly flights from Athens. Furthermore, Swissair will commence four weekly flights from Zurich as from July.

The statement also noted that the retail sector of the business is recovering well after absorbing the effects of the absence of the Libyan traffic and the lower number of flights from Russia.

Overall, the Directors expect that the Company’s financial results for the year will be within projections made at the beginning of the year.