Drop in number of ferry passengers

The number of passengers who made the Malta-Gozo crossing between April and June was slightly lower than in the same period last year even though more cars were carried and more ferry trips were made.

The National Statistics Office said the number of passengers went down by 2.7 per cent to about 1,008,000. However, the number of vehicles carried by scheduled vessels went up by 3.5 per cent, totalling 274,521.

The month of May saw the highest number of commuters in the period under review, 346,697, while April was the only month that registered an increase in the number of passengers, up by 2.2 per cent. This could be attributed to the fact that Easter this year fell in April whereas last year it was celebrated in March, the NSO said.

The number of trips in the second quarter stood at 4,913, an increase of 1.1 per cent over the comparable period the previous year. The highest number of ferry trips was recorded in June (1,686), accounting for 34.3 per cent of the total number of trips for the period under review.