MaltaMedia.com

Passenger movements at Malta International Airport in October reached 346,480, i.e. the highest number ever registered in October and the second time the 300,000th mark has been reached in October (following 2010). The increase in passenger movements, when compared to the same month last year, is equivalent to an increase of 4.4%. Seat capacity in the same month was of 430,199, or 6.5% less than that of October 2010.

In October, aircraft movements decreased by 8.2% over the corresponding period last year, whilst the average seat load factor increased by a staggering 8.3 PPD, reaching 80.5% – up from the 72.2% registered in October 2010. The maximum take-off weight (MTOW) decreased by 6% with a total of 218,000 tonnes, whilst cargo and mail was 4% higher than that recorded during the same month in 2010.

The German market had a significant increase of 24%, whereas the UK market registered a modest increase of 2.1%. On the other hand, in this month, the Spanish, Italian and French markets all registered a decrease, with -5.6%, -4.8% and -1.7% respectively.

The results for the first 10 months of the year, in terms of passenger movements, therefore show an increase of 7.3% when compared to the same period last year, totalling 3,128,418 passenger movements. Once again, this positive result was mainly brought about by the strong increase in the average seat load factor which stands at 5 PPD, and this is more noteworthy when one considers that aircraft movements has decreased by 2.2% over the same period last year.