Malta International Airport plc - April Traffic Results

On 9 May 2022, Malta International Airport plc announced that during the month of April it welcomed 513,979 passengers (equivalent to the total traffic handled in the previous two months) which is 21.3% lower than the level of 653,258 movements recorded in April 2019. Moreover, the seat load factor stood at 77.8% – the highest level since November 2019 and also just 5.6 percentage points lower than April 2019.

MIA explained that a number of factors contributed to the stronger momentum in business. These included the launch of the summer flight schedule which offers better connections, the easing of Malta’s entry restrictions on 11 April 2022, as well as the Easter holidays. Indeed, during the third week of the month, the airport operator welcomed 133,267 passengers which is almost equivalent to the total of 137,887 movements handled in the first four months of 2021.

Similar to the previous month, the best-performing markets for April were Italy (representing 22.3% of total passenger movements), followed by the UK, France, Germany, and Poland.

In conclusion, MIA noted that April’s traffic results augur well for the upcoming months which are expected to bring the release of more pent-up demand for travel. However, recently published data for Q1 2022 shows that Malta’s recovery still lagged behind that of its Mediterranean competitors. While Malta has eased many of its travel restrictions in recent weeks making the island a more attractive destination, survey results published by the European Travel Commission in April 2022 showed that 56% of Europeans who were planning to travel in summer had already chosen their destination.