Summer
is in full swing at Malta International Airport, with the number of travellers
passing through the terminal in July increasing by more than 90,000 passenger
movements. This translates into an upturn of 15.5% over the same month
last year. July's
675,111 passenger movements exceeded the airport's previous passenger traffic
record, held by August 2016, by 12%.
As
noted also in previous months, July's thriving numbers resulted from an
increase in aircraft movements. These grew by 13.6% to reach an
all-time record of 4,562 take-offs and landings by the end of July. In parallel
with this growth, seat capacity registered an increase of 16.5%.
Despite a slight drop of 1.3%, last month's seat load factor still stood at a healthy 86.7%.
The
top five drivers of traffic to Malta IAP remained unchanged
from June, with the United Kingdom topping the list followed by Italy, Germany,
France, and Spain. These markets recorded varying levels of growth, and
cumulatively were responsible for a leap of around 53,000 passenger movements
when compared to July 2016.
Passenger
numbers from these markets flourished as a result of enhanced capacity and
flight frequencies on routes such as Glasgow, Bari, Frankfurt, Lyon, and
Madrid, as well as the launch of new routes including Bordeaux and Valencia.
July's
traffic brought the total number of travellers welcomed at Malta IAP in the first seven months of the year up to around 3.3 million. Towards
the end of the month, the airport published its mid-yearly forecast, whereby it
announced that it is expecting circa 5.8 million passengers to go through the
terminal by the end of the year. (Source: maltairport.com, 8-Aug-2017)