Malta International Airport said today that it is coping well with the surge of aircraft movements created by the evacuations from Libya.

During a media event at the airport, a spokesman for the company said the airport had had to maximise parking stands on its various aprons, stretching operations to the limit and requiring strict coordination with Air Traffic Control (ATC) to ensure efficiency levels are maintained at all times.

Since Monday, there have been a total of 212 aircraft movements directly related to the emergency in Libya, with 70 of these movements operated by commercial airlines, 92 movements operated by a number of military aircraft belonging to various Air Forces, and 50 by small private aircraft.

The total number of passengers brought over from Tripoli by a number of these flights over the past seven days, was over 3,000.

These flights include also a number of unscheduled flights departing with evacuees who arrived in Malta either by air or by sea.

“Just today, we have four Chinese Eastern Airlines (2 A-330s and 2 A340s) as well as a Jet2.com (B757) for British nationals. In fact, the total number of evacuees leaving from Malta Airport as at today is more than 4,100 – 1,350 of whom left today.”