Passengers passing through the airport dropped by 10.5 per cent last month when compared to same period last year.

The total passenger movements on scheduled and non-scheduled flights in February amounted to 139,747, a decline of 16,458, the Malta International Airport said in a statement yesterday.

This resulted in an average decrease of 11.2 per cent for the first two months of 2009 when compared to the corresponding period last year.

Passenger traffic for the three main markets in February - the UK, Italy and Germany - declined by 11.5 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 18.7 per cent respectively.

However, MIA registered increases of 28.7 per cent from the French market and 17.6 per cent from the United Arab Emirates.

Aircraft movements dropped from 1,550 to 1,358, that is by 10.6 per cent, while figures for cargo and mail declined by 4.3 per cent, from 1,486 tonnes to 1,422.

The busiest day was February 21 in terms of passengers, with 7,669 movements and the highest number of aircraft totalling 61 on the same day, MIA said.

These figures reflected recent statistics released by the National Statistics Office which showed that the number of tourists visiting Malta dropped by 19.1 per cent in January, reaching 51,643, when compared to the same period last year.

The NSO's report pointed out that the drop in tourism was mainly due to fewer holidaymakers visiting from the UK, France and Germany.

Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism Mario de Marco had blamed the drop on the international financial crisis and airlines' shrinking seat capacity this winter.

In contrast, in another report, the NSO found that the number of cruise liner passengers who visited Malta in January rose sharply over the previous two Januaries, reaching 12,580.