Malta International Airport plc - July Traffic Results

On 10 August 2021, Malta International Airport plc published its traffic results for the month of July. The airport operator noted that last month’s traffic totalled 311,692 passenger movements, which amounts to 39% of the traffic levels in July 2019. Furthermore, the latest reading shows that Malta is recovering at a slower pace than its Southern European counterparts whose recovery rate for July averaged 57% according to Airports Council International data.

Meanwhile, seat capacity deployed on routes to and from Malta was just 35.5% below 2019 levels, whilst the seat load factor for July, which measures the occupancy of available seats, amounted to 52.6% compared to 87% in the same period in 2019.

MIA positively noted that in July, travel opportunities for the local market continued to increase, primarily following the inclusion of three weekly flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport as well as two brand-new routes to Chania and Cagliari which were added to the airport’s summer schedule.

The airport operator also highlighted that the United Kingdom returned to its top five markets following the easing of travel restrictions between the two countries. This follows the subsequent increase in flight frequencies on several UK routes and the introduction of additional routes by a number of airlines. Meanwhile, Italy retained its top spot after registering 60,388 passenger movements during the month of July.

Elsewhere, an industry assessment issued by Eurocontrol on 22 July showed that European traffic has been increasing over the past 10 weeks leading to the publication of the report and that domestic travel is still dominating passenger traffic.