Malta International Airport plc - February Traffic Results

On 10 March 2021, Malta International Airport plc published the February 2021 traffic results showing a 93.5% drop in passenger traffic to 27,524 movements – the weakest monthly performance since the airport’s reopening to commercial flights in July 2020. MIA noted that among its top 10 markets, the United Kingdom recorded the largest drop in passenger numbers as a ban restricting travel between the two countries remained in place.

The airport operator’s CEO, Alan Borg explained that whilst the focus should remain on the effective roll-out of vaccination programmes, due importance should also be given to other key matters including health certificates and leveraging mobile technology to enable the reopening of borders which would allow for the safe restart of travel and tourism activities.

Meanwhile, with consumer confidence and air travel demand particularly low, seat capacity deployed by airlines in February 2021 was at just 10% of February 2020 levels whilst the seat load factor amounted to just 52.5%, meaning that just over half the seats available on flights to and from Malta were occupied throughout the month.