Sunday, 11th May 2008
Air Malta's traffic soars above most European airlines
Estimated growth of 25 per cent in May
Air Malta has been one of the most successful European airlines in the first quarter this year in terms of passenger growth, according to statistics published by the Association of European Airlines.
The national airline's passenger numbers shot up by 12.8 per cent this year, substantially higher than the 2.6 per cent average growth measured by the 30 other airlines surveyed.
The AEA passenger average load factor decreased by one percentage point, while Air Malta's increased by 13 per cent.
"This is an extremely positive trend," Air Malta marketing general manager Brian Bartolo told The Sunday Times.
March was a particularly good month for Air Malta which saw an increase of 18.1 per cent in passengers. During this month, domestic and cross border Europe passengers decreased by 0.5 per cent, according to the AEA figures. The growth was registered despite a 10.8 per cent reduction in seat capacity, compared to the same period last year.
The success measured in the first quarter is expected to establish a trend for the rest of the year. An airline spokesman said Air Malta had registered an estimated six per cent increase in April over last year. The success is even more significant given that Easter fell in that month last year.
May figures are even more encouraging with an estimated traffic growth of 25 per cent compared with last year. According to Malta International Airport statistics, during the first week of May, Air Malta registered an increase of 36 per cent in traffic.
More than 500,000 passengers flew Air Malta last winter, a record for the airline.
Mr Bartolo said the increase was largely down to the success of the new Air Malta online portal and the €2.8 million (Lm1.2m) overseas marketing campaign. But with an economic slowdown building up in Europe, coupled with the spiralling oil prices, the airline was determined to keep its feet on the ground, he explained.
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Comments
The list does not include any low cost carriers (LCCs), most of which have registered healthy year-on-year growth.
To put the AEA numbers in perspective, taking the March 2008 statistics (from the airline websites):
EasyJet Passengers carried + 20.5%; Load Factor 90.4%
Ryanair Passengers carried + 19%, Load Factor 79%
Air Malta Passengers carried +18.1%, Load Factor 78.6%
(Average AEA Load Factor is 76.7%. Load factor is the proportion of passengers to the available passenger seats)
This makes the Air Malta figures look less impressive. Also keep in mind that the Air Malta figures for the first three months of the current year are being compared to the same 3 months last year when Air Malta did not have an online booking facility. If booking a ticket from the UK you would have had to go to an Air Malta office to pick up the paper tickets! The increase in passenger numbers therefore is to be expected, once Air Malta belatedly introduced e-ticketing, but the passenger number could be expected not to increase at this rate again in the future.
Finally the Air Malta load factor, although comparable to that of other airlines, is of no comfort on its own for a company that is severely over staffed. High fuel costs may well ensure that the airline is still losing lots of cash. How come we repeatedly hear about traffic figures but nothing about financial results?