Passenger movements at Malta International Airport last month rose by 17.8 per cent, totalling 174,877, when compared to the same period last year.

Seat capacity also shot up, by 20.1 per cent, to 275,461, according to figures released by MIA yesterday.

The movements exclude Libyan-related evacuation flights on military and private aircraft. The last week of February saw an extraordinary influx of traffic arrivals from Libya and an even larger amount of departing traffic on scheduled and unscheduled flights, registering a total of 5,500 passenger movements.

The French, Spanish and Italian markets grew remarkably in February, up by 61.4 per cent, 51.5 per cent and 15.2 per cent respectively, while Germany and the UK grew by a more modest eight per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively.

For the first two months of the year, passenger movements increased by 16.3 per cent. The number of aircraft movements went up by 14.8 per cent and seat capacity by 15.2 per cent.