Malta International Airport this year registered the best ever figures for February when it welcomed a total of 193,225 passengers. This figure is a 9.3 per cent increase over the same month last year, breaking all previous records for such period

February’s figures were due to an added capacity of seven per cent and a consistent seat load factor, which went up by 1.5 percentage points to reach overall 72.5 per cent for the month.

Traffic from the UK grew consistently by 7.6 per cent, mirroring previous month’s results. Italy once again remains the second biggest market registering the highest growth, for the month, of 17.4 per cent proving the popularity of the northern routes.

“The increased traffic during the winter months shows that our efforts in promoting Malta as year-round destination are bearing fruit. We are pleased to have hosted a total of 392,579 passengers between January and February showing a consistent positive trend during this time of year,” Malta International Airport CEO Markus Klaushofer said.

Meanwhile, aircraft movements for the month increased by 7.8 per cent. This was reflected in the increase of seven per cent in seat capacity which reached 266,678, when compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Seat Load Factor registered an increase of 1.5 percentage points, while the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) increased by 6.9 per cent when compared to 2013 figures.

Cargo and mail registered a decline of 5.3 per cent over the previous year.