Passenger movements at Malta International Airport in August reached an all-time record of 427,924, a 13.4 per cent increase on the same month last year.

Seat capacity has also hit an all-time record with 536,495 seats, an increase of 10.1 per cent.

“Yet again, MIA's monthly passenger movements in August exceeded the 400,000 mark and seat capacity has surpassed the half a million mark for the second consecutive month,” said CEO Julian Jaeger.

He expressed his satisfaction adding that “these positive results were possible through the hard work of all various stakeholders involved in the industry. I am confident that with the focus of all concerned we can maintain the momentum gained over the past months."

In August, aircraft movements grew by 8.7 per cent over the corresponding period last year, while the average seat load factor also increased by a significant 2.4 percentage points to reach 79.8 per cent - up from the 77.4 per cent registered in August 2009.

The maximum take-off weight was 9.7 per cent higher than that registered in August last year, while cargo and mail was 0.4 per cent lower than that recorded during the same month in 2009.

All the core markets registered increases in August with Spain, Italy and France growing by 31.1 per cent, 28.6 per cent and 13.7 per cent, respectively. The United Kingdom grew by 6.8 per cent, Germany, by 5.3 per cent.

January –August results show an increase of 11.9 per cent when compared to the same period last year, totalling 2,210,695 passenger movements. The increase of 9.3 per cent in seat capacity was the main driver of this result, while the average seat load factor improved by 1.5 percentage points reaching 70.8 per cent.