A total of 33,761 Maltese went abroad in September, an increase of 10.9 per cent compared to the same month last year. 87.3 per cent travelled by air.
The National Statistics Office said that 87.6 per cent travelled to EU destinations, the most popular being Italy and the UK (32 and 23.4 per cent), respectively. Nearly half of these outbound passengers fell in the 25-44 age bracket.
Between January and September, the number of outbound passengers reached 229,664, almost unchanged from last year's figures.
Of these 198,740 travelled to EU destinations, mainly Italy and the UK, which together accounted for 64.6 per cent of the total EU trips. The number of non-EU trips dropped by 5.7 per cent.