Air transport is on the rise

Malta registered the fourth highest growth rate in air transport in the EU in 2010, according to data published in Brussels, yesterday.

Giving details of air passenger movements in the EU’s member states, Eurostat said while Malta’s only airport was the 84th busiest, it handled a total of 3.3 million passengers, an increase of 12.8 per cent over 2009.

According to Eurostat, this rise reflected a buoying tourism market.

The only other member states that managed to surpass Malta’s growth rate in 2010 were Lithuania (22.3 per cent), Denmark (16.6 per cent) and Latvia (14.6 per cent).

Details show most passengers handled at the Gudja airport in 2010 – almost three million – took flights to other member states while the remaining 324,000 flew to or from countries outside the EU, mainly from North Africa where Malta’s airport has good connections.

On the downside, freight transport fell by 3.5 per cent during the same year, with 16,882 tons handled at MIA.

A total of 29,000 flights were handled by Malta’s airport in 2010, an increase of nine per cent over the preceding year.