Passengers up for first time this year

Passenger movements at Malta International Airport in October increased slightly over the same month last year, marking a departure from the declines seen month after month this year.

In the first 10 months of the year, passenger movements fell by an average 7.3 per cent over the same period last year.

For the first time this year, however, official statistics for October show a marginal improvement of 0.1 per cent, or 173 passengers, over the previous October, with some 280,000 passengers travelling on scheduled and non-scheduled flights.

Aircraft movements and cargo and mail figures registered even bigger increases, at 5.2 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively.

Passenger traffic in Malta's main markets - the UK, Italy and Spain - increased by 0.2 per cent, 19.6 per cent and 31.6 per cent respectively.

Drops were registered from Germany (-7.1 per cent) and France (-1.6 per cent).