Passenger numbers at Malta International Airport this year are expected to be the same as in 2010, which was an “absolute, unprecedented, unexpected record” and hard to beat, CEO Julian Jaeger says.
The aim to consolidate last year’s record 3.29 million passengers was based on various considerations, including the fact that summer and winter schedules were still unclear, four new destinations for 2011 and the cruise-and-fly operation starting in May which had lots of potential, Mr Jaeger said.
The start of the year has been good but he did not think growth would be sustained throughout. He would be “happy if numbers remained pretty much in line with 2010”, which saw an increase of 12.8 per cent.
Aircraft movements and seat capacity both increased by about 10 per cent over the previous year, Mr Jaegar said.
The “cautious” forecast was also based on the premise that Air Malta would be using 11 aircraft – one less than previous years – and its seat allocation so far, Mr Jaeger continued.
Asked how MIA viewed the restructuring of its main carrier – Air Malta is in the red and has sought emergency aid – Mr Jaeger insisted the airport was not involved in the exercise and did not expect to be. It was in touch with the management but was not part of the process. Talks would start once decisions were taken.
Results for 2010 showed Air Malta remained the major carrier at MIA, handling 51 per cent of traffic and registering an increase of 2.6 per cent on 2009.
It is followed by Ryanair, which opened a base in May, with a traffic share of 20.5 per cent, equivalent to an increase of 52 per cent, and EasyJet which has 9.2 per cent of the market, marking a growth of 66 per cent.
Performance by Lufthansa and Emirates dropped by two per cent and 13 per cent respectively but Mr Jaeger said the figures looked more worrying than they actually were.
The main markets for 2010 were the UK (31.4 per cent), followed by Italy and Germany with 19.5 per cent and 12.8 per cent respectively. Italy also showed significant growth due to the increase in capacity, with four daily Rome flights.
Legacy carriers maintained passenger numbers but lost on their market share (from 71 per cent in 2009 to 62 per cent last year) to low-cost airlines, which went up to 32 per cent from 23 per cent.
Decreases were registered in cargo and mail and a decline in passenger movement was marked in April due to the disruptive effect of the Icelandic ash cloud.
The low-frequency additional flights for 2011 include EasyJet’s to Belfast from next month, Lufthansa’s new route to Munich and Air Berlin’s operation to Nuremberg and Basel from April.