Passenger traffic through Malta International Airport increased by 18.4% last month over October 2009 to reach 331,910, the highest number ever registered in October, MIA said this afternoon.

It was the first time that October had exceeded the 300,000th mark.

Seat capacity was of 459,659, an increase of 17.1% over October 2009. Aircraft movements grew by 15.4% over the corresponding period last year, whilst the average seat load factor was also on the increase, reaching 72.2% - up from the 71.4% registered in October 2009.

The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) grew by 15.2 with a total of 231,905 tonnes, whilst cargo and mail was 6.9% lower than that recorded during the same month in 2009.

The French, Spanish and Italian markets once again grew remarkably in October, by 54.2%, 41.1% and 24.8% respectively, whereas Germany and the UK grew by more modest but nonetheless significant increases of 10.5% and 8.5% respectively.

"The results for the first 10 months of the year, in terms of passenger movements, therefore show an increase of 13.0% when compared to the same period last year, totalling 2,916,179 passenger movements," MIA said.

"Once again, this positive result was mainly brought about by the strong increase in seat capacity, which was 10.4% higher than that recorded in 2009, coupled with the fact that the average seat load factor was 1.6 percentage points higher than that registered during the same period last year."

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