Airport passenger traffic rises in July, but dips on UK route

Airport passenger movements increased slightly in July when compared to the same month in 2007, MIA said today.

The total passenger movements in July 2008 increased by 1.3% for a total of 370,873 whilst aircraft movements decreased by 3.2% for a total of 2,965.

Seat capacity decreased by 4,034 (-0.8%) but the seat load factor increased by 1.6% to an average of 77.7%. Cargo and mail handled at MIA during the month of July was of 1,537 tonnes, a decrease of 3.5% when compared to July 2007.

MIA said there had been a significant decrease in traffic from the UK market which was however compensated with increases from the German, Italian, Spanish and French markets. Passenger movements from and to the UK decreased by 6% to 118,660, whilst traffic from Italy, Germany and France increased by 4.2%, 3.1% and 3% respectively. Once again, the Spanish market was the highest achiever with an increase of 7,849 passenger movements.

Traffic – January to July 2008

MIA registered an increase of 182,694 passenger movements, or 11.5%, from January to July this year, and an increase of 425 aircraft movements (+2.8%) on its scheduled and non-scheduled traffic. The seat capacity increased by 6.6% whereas the average seat load factor also improved from 67.4% in 2007 to 70.5% this year. Cargo and Mail activity increased by 5.4% during the period January-July 2008 for a total of 10,225 tonnes handled.

Passenger movements from the three main markets - the UK, Italy and Germany – increased by 1.9%, 8.6% and 26% respectively between January and July 2008 whilst the highest increases in percentage terms were from France (+18%) and Spain (+298.5%).