Malta International Airport registered a 5.8 per cent increase in passengers in September when compared to the same month last year, new figures show. 

The airport registered more than half a million passengers for the third consecutive month, with 531,962 travellers passing through MIA in September. 

In a statement announcing the results, MIA said the increase in passengers was in part due to improved connectivity to the Maltese islands throughout the summer.

Seat capacity, which indicates the number of seats available to Malta, registered a 4.2 per cent rise over last year, while September’s seat load factor (SLF) experienced a growth of 1.3 percentage points to reach 87.5 percent, indicating that airlines were very efficient in filling up available seats.

The UK, Italy, Germany, France and Spain remain Malta's top sources of airline passengers, with all five markets registering varying degrees of growth ranging from 2 per cent to 14 per cent. The growth of the French market mainly stems from an increased capacity to one of France’s major airports, Paris Orly.

Furthermore, September marks Spain’s third consecutive appearance among Malta International Airport’s top five markets, following added flights on the Madrid route.

Although they did not secure a spot among the top five markets last month, both Poland and Switzerland experienced a remarkable hike in passenger movements compared to 2015, amounting to 36 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, the MIA statement noted. 

Statistics for the first nine months of the year show that MIA has registered a 7.5 per cent growth rate in the year so far, hosting almost 3.9 million passengers in the year up to September 30. Aircraft movements grew by 2.4 per cent while seat capacity increased by 5.3 per cent. The seat load factor also rose to 83.4 per cent compared to 81.7 per cent last year.