Malta International Airport plc - October Traffic Results

On 10 November, Malta International Airport plc published the October 2013 traffic results. The statistics reveal a 17.4% increase in passenger movements to 409,400 – yet another monthly record. The growth in passenger traffic in October 2013 was due to a 15.2% increase in seat capacity to 501,830 seats coupled with a 1.5 percentage point increase in the seat load factor to 81.6%.

The airport operator stated that all major markets reported growth during the month of October. Passenger movements from Germany jumped 47.7% mainly reflecting the cruise and fly operation which was extended to the month under review. Double-digit growth was also registered in the French (+29.8%), Italian (+21.1%) and Spanish markets (+15.6%). The UK market (the largest market for MIA) also registered growth during the month under review of 2.4%.

January to October 2013

During the first ten months of the year, MIA registered a 9.9% increase in passenger movements to 3,567,431 – a record number of passenger movements during this period and already higher than the number of annual passenger movements recorded prior to 2012 and approaching last year’s annual record of 3.65 million passenger movements. This growth reflects the 9.6% increase in seat capacity to 4.5 million seats and the seat load factor which edged marginally higher to 79.2%.

The largest growth in passengers emanated from the Italian (+17.5%) and the French (+13%) markets. Passengers from Germany (+8.3%) and UK (+3.4%) also grew during the first ten months of 2013 whilst those from Spain contracted by 2.4%.

The announcement also noted that airport traffic reached new highs in each of the first ten months of 2013 including September and October which recorded figures only previously experience during peak months. Furthermore, MIA registered five consecutive months with passenger movements above the 400,000 mark.