Slight rise in passengers

Passenger movements increased by 1.3 per cent in July over the same month in 2007 for a total of 370,873, Malta International Airport (MIA) said.

Aircraft movements fell by 3.2 per cent for a total of 2,965. Seat capacity went down by 4,034 (0.8 per cent) but the seat load factor increased by 1.6 per cent to an average of 77.7 per cent. MIA said there had been a significant decrease in traffic from the UK market which was however compensated for by increases from the German, Italian, Spanish and French markets.

The airport registered an increase of 182,694 passenger movements, or 11.5 per cent, from January to July, and an increase of 425 aircraft movements (2.8 per cent) on its scheduled and non-scheduled traffic.

During this period, passenger movements from the three main markets - the UK, Italy and Germany - increased by 1.9 per cent, 8.6 per cent and 26 per cent respectively between January and July 2008, while the highest percentage increases were from France (18 per cent) and Spain (298.5 per cent).