Almost 300,000 bees call Malta International Airport home, though the six million passengers who set foot in the airport terminal are unlikely to hear them buzzing as they leaf through the roughly 290 newspapers sold every day at airport outlets.

The indigenous Apis mellifera ruttneri bees make MIA’s apron their home, with the microclimate surrounding the runway tarmac ideal for them to prosper.

As the world marks World Statistics Day, the airport put together a series of numbers reflecting MIA activity.

Around 800 items are lost at the airport every year – and that includes hard-to-miss items like 65-inch televisions and expensive drones.

In many of those cases, owners get in touch with airport staff to reclaim their items. Those requests are just a drop in the ocean of the 4,600 yearly queries received by MIA’s team.

Queries range from the mundane to ““Can I carry rats’ brains in my luggage for research I’m conducting abroad?”

“Such questions make one wonder what other strange items hide in the 12,248 pieces of luggage that are, on average, processed every day in the summer months,” MIA mused in a statement sharing the figures.

Some other numbers from Malta’s airport:

• 773,580 Costa coffees sold in 2017
• 671,000 chocolate bars sold at Dufry in 2017
• 13,520 kilograms of fruit blended every year at Dr Juice
• 106 different passenger nationalities