Passenger movements at MIA up 25%

Passenger movements at Malta International Airport grew by 25.3 per cent in April, reaching 300,123, the highest number ever registered in April.

In an announcement on the Malta Stock Exchange, MIA said this was brought about by a record seat capacity for the month, which exceeded 400,000 seats, an increase of 13.3 per cent over April last year.

The elevated increase this month had to take into consideration that the figures of April last year had been negatively affected by the volcanic ash disruption.

The average seat load factor was also on the increase when compared to April 2010, reaching 73 per cent - an increase of 7 percentage points, whilst aircraft movements for the month grew by 10.2 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

Likewise the maximum take-off weight was 5.3 per cent higher than the corresponding period, whilst cargo and mail was 4.6 per cent higher than that recorded during the same month in 2010.

The German, French, UK and Spanish markets grew remarkably in April, by 45.3 per cent, 34.5 per cent, 31.7 per cent and 25.8 per cent, respectively, whereas the Italian market suffered a negligible decrease of 0.4 per cent.

Between January and April, passenger movements increased by 19.2 per cent, with aircraft movements registering an increase of 13.1 per cent over the same months last year.

The seat capacity increased by 15.5 per cent and the average seat load factor increased by 2.1 percentage points over the first four months of 2010.

In the same period, the maximum take-off weight increased by 10.8 per cent whereas cargo and mail decreased slightly by 4.2 per cent over the same period of 2010.