Six per cent drop in airport passenger movements

Malta International Airport saw six per cent fewer passenger movements last month when compared to April 2009. Considering the widespread disruption caused by the ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, the performance was not that bad.

The volcano, which erupted on April 14, spewed ash over much of Europe's airspace, rendering it unsafe for planes to fly for a week. MIA cancelled 336 flights and lost 35,000 passenger movements as a result.

Total passenger movements on scheduled and non-scheduled flights in April stood at 239,553, a drop of 15,370 passengers. Passenger traffic from the airport's main markets, Italy and Spain, respectively, increased by 26.3 per cent and 33.6 per cent. In contrast, traffic from the UK, Germany and France shrunk by 7.8 per cent, 29.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively.

The busiest day was April 6, with 13,724 passenger and 106 aircraft movements. In the first four months of this year, a 3.6 per cent increase in traffic was registered over the same period last year.