Passenger movements at Malta International Airport grew by 5.8% during May reaching 344,008 passengers, a record for the month, MIA announced this afternoon.

The news comes days after the NSO announced record tourist arrivals in April.

MIA said that aircraft movements and seat capacity last month als registered an increase on those registered during May 2011, with an increase of 2.2% and 2.7% respectively.

The average seat load factor went up by 2.2 percentage points over the same month last year.

The increase in aircraft movements resulted also in an increase in the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 3 %, whilst cargo and mail registered a 3.8% increase.

All five major markets registered growth during May 2012 when compared to the same month last year. The highest increase – 18.7% – was registered in the Spanish market, followed by an increase of 6% in the German market, 5.8% in the French market, and 3.5% from the UK. The Italian market registered an increase of 2.3%.

January – May 2012

Passenger traffic for the period between January and May 2012 saw a slight decrease of 0.4%.

"The increases registered in April and May have countered the decrease registered in the first quarter of the year," MIA said.

Aircraft movements registered a decrease of 4.7% when compared to the same period in 2011. Seat capacity was 5.2% lower whilst the average seat load factor increased by 3.6 percentage points. In the same period, the MTOW decreased by 3.3% whereas Cargo and Mail increased by 4.7% over the same period in 2011.

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