MaltaMedia.com

Passenger movements at Malta International Airport in September reached 373,610, i.e. the highest number ever registered in September.

The increase in passenger movements, when compared to the same month last year, is equivalent to an increase of 15.4%. Seat capacity in the same month almost hit the half-a-million mark with 498,243, i.e. an increase of 11.5% over September 2009.

In September, aircraft movements grew by 11.7% over the corresponding period last year, whilst the average seat load factor also increased by a significant 2.5 percentage points to reach 75.0% – up from the 72.5% registered in September 2009. The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) was 9.3% higher than that registered in September last year, whilst cargo and mail was 20% lower than that recorded during the same month in 2009.

The French, Spanish and Italian markets grew significantly in September, by 43.8%, 34.8% and 32.6% respectively, whereas Germany recorded a more modest increase of 5.9%. The UK was the only core market that registered a decline during September – passenger movements were 1.9% less than last year.

The results for the first nine months of the year, in terms of passenger movements, therefore show an increase of 12.4% when compared to the same period last year, totalling 2,584,305 passenger movements.

The strong increase of 9.6% in seat capacity was the main driver of this result, whilst the average seat load factor improved by 1.7 percentage points reaching 71.4% for the period January to September 2010.